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Construction has begun on the Giant Magellan Telescope in Chile
A groundbreaking ceremony on top of a mountain in the Chilean Andes on Wednesday has signaled the beginning of Giant Magellan Telescope's construction. Three years after blowing up the peak where the structure will be built, the GMT Organization's Board of Directors has finally given its builders the go-signal. It can afford to do so now that the US, Australia, Brazil and Korea have committed $500 million to the project. According to Ars Technica, bulldozers have moved in to level a road that goes up to GMT's location at Carnegie Institution's Las Campanas Observatory -- which also serves as home to other telescopes, including the smaller Magellans -- as soon as the ceremony was done.
World's largest telescope underway, scientists definitely observe big bang
Once again astronomers are observing formative explosions, but this time a little bit closer to home. Three million cubic feet of planet earth is being blasted from the Chilean Andes as work on what will be the world's largest telescope begins. The location is the Carnegie Institution's Las Campanas Observatory, and the project is a collaboration between South Korean, Australian and American institutions to create the Giant Magellan Telescope. The first mirror segment is just being completed, and is so precise, it matches its optical prescription to within a millionth of an inch. The project will cost $700 million once complete, small change we say for a chance to glimpse light from the edge of the Universe.
