When complete in 2025, the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) will become the world’s largest optical/near-infrared extremely large telescope, located atop Cerro Armazones in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. Its goal is to advance astrophysical knowledge by allowing detailed studies of planets around other stars, including the earliest galaxies, supermassive black holes, and even the search for intelligent extraterrestrial life. Read more for two videos and additional information.
Its segmented primary mirror spans 130-feet (39.3 m) and is supported by adaptive optics, eight laser guide star units as well as multiple large science instruments, with the aim to gather 100 million times more light than the human eye. The ELT is so powerful that it should be able to detect water and organic molecules in protoplanetary disks around other stars.
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We always talk about telescopes in terms of the size of their main mirror, and ours is 39 meters, which makes it five times, in diameter, bigger than the present biggest telescopes that we run. So, indeed, Extremely Large is very well named—if not very imaginatively named. In terms of dimensions, it’s as big as the Coliseum in Rome. So you are building a huge cathedral, but at the same time, that huge cathedral has to move, and maintain the quality of optics to nanometer accuracy,” said Suzanne Ramsay, ELT instrument manager.
