The world's largest telescope will operate in 2027

Completed work with the second mirror of the seven mirrors for the Magellanic Giant Telescope (GMT) built in Chile, south of the Atacama desert.

According to the announcement on the project website, the operation of the telescope will begin in 2027.

It is expected that the resolution of the new telescope will be 10 times better than Hubble.

The main mirror of the telescope will consist of seven circular segments of 8.4 meters (one in the center and six around it) with a total area of ​​368 square meters. It is expected that the resolution of the new telescope will be 10 times better than Hubble.

As with all modern telescopes, on GMT will install adaptive optical systems, adjust the geometry of the mirror in real-time mode to compensate for fluctuations in the permeability of the atmosphere.

The world's largest telescope construction started in 2017. The cost is estimated at 1 billion euros. The diameter of the largest mirror will be 39m and will consist of nearly 800 hexagonal mirrors with a diameter of 1.4m.

The rotating dome area of ​​the new telescope will approximate a football field (86m in diameter), the total weight of this structure is 5,000 tons.