Breaking ground to build huge telescopes

The groundbreaking ceremony of Europe's huge telescope construction (E-ELT) has taken place in an area of ​​3,046m altitude belonging to Cerro Amazones in Chile. With a total cost of about $ 1.12 billion, E-ELT is considered the world's largest infrared and optical telescope, according to Newatlas.

Perspective of optical and infrared observatory E-ELT.(PHOTO: NEWATLAS).

The above position is chosen because it is a place with less light pollution, especially the rate of cloudy nights in the year is very high. The project was started in 2014 but until now it was only the groundbreaking ceremony with the form of the first stone, as planned to be completed in 2024.

After construction is completed, E-ELT will have a main mirror with a diameter of 39m to compare with the Giant Magellan telescope including 7 combined mirrors of only 25.4m. The main structure of the E-ELT weighs about 5,000 tons, of which 3,000 tons of heavy displacement in an 85m wide dome.

Therefore, E-ELT will be the largest optical telescope ever.

E-ELT will help scientists to better study exoplanets, super-massive cosmic black holes, dark energy nature, the formation of early galaxies in the universe . This telescope is designed to overcome the deformation of the atmosphere, thus obtaining images 16 times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope.