Chile - astronomer's paradise

With its height, dry atmosphere, rarely recorded and quiet rainfall, the Atacama desert in northern Chile has been chosen by astronomers to host some of the strongest telescopes in the world.

Inside one of the telescopes and control room at the Paranal observatory. Photo: BBC.

Here scientists will install a giant telescope with a height of 2,600m in the Andes. When completed in the next 10 years, it will be the most powerful optical tool in the world.

The telescope is the size of a football stadium, costing about 1.5 billion USD and weighing more than 5,000 tons. It will be built to withstand major earthquakes in Chile.

The main mirror of the telescope will be 42m wide, one of the largest mirrors in the world. Because it is impossible to create a large mirror with high curves and precision, engineers in Europe will make about 1,000 small hexagonal mirrors. Later the small mirrors will be transferred to Chile and tied together like pieces in a giant jigsaw puzzle.

According to astronomers, the images created by the giant telescope will be 15 times sharper than images from the Hubble space telescope, and eventually it can help find signs of life on other planets.

Henri Vantuansos, a senior astronomer, said the new telescope will help find the answers to the questions scientists pose when using the tools available at the observatory.

" What we can do so far is only to increase the number of questions. For example, we have discovered that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, but we have no clue and Why is that? The new telescope hopes to help them describe this question, " BBC quoted astronomer Vantuansos.

In Chile, not only has a large telescope project built, a group of engineers is completing the construction of the world's largest ALMA radio telescope network.

ALMA telescopes have an important role in unlocking the secrets of the universe. It consists of more than 60 giant radio antennas, assembled on the Chajnantor plateau at a height of 5,000m. Tim de Zeeuw, the head of ESO is expected to begin bringing this network into operation later this year, promising to be " a transition to science like the Hubble Space Telescope ".

ALMA telescopes have an important role in unlocking the secrets of the universe. Photo: ESO.