Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Emerging Tech
  3. News

Animation captures the massive scale of what will be the world’s largest telescope

By
Add as a preferred source on Google

The European Extremely Large Telescope is aptly named. The E-ELT will be the largest optical telescope on the Earth when it is completed in 2024. How big is big? A newly released concept animation video shows the massive scale of the telescope as it sits atop the summit of Cerro Armazones in Chile’s Atacama Desert.

The E-ELT is magnanimous both in hardware and finances. The telescope is several magnitudes larger than existing scopes that have primary mirrors measuring approximately 10 meters in diameter. In comparison, the E-ELT will have a primary reflecting mirror that is 39 meters wide and a protective outer dome that climbs 80 meters high. With all this extra hardware, the E-ELT reflecting telescope will be able to collect more light than all existing 10-meter telescopes combined, making it the most powerful ground telescope to date when it is finished. With its cutting-edge mirrors and adaptive optics technology, the E-ELT will produce outstanding images of our universe that are 15 times sharper than those recorded by the Hubble Telescope.

Recommended Videos

The telescope is being built through the efforts of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), a 16-nation intergovernmental research group focused on ground-based astronomy. The ESO currently operates some of the world’s largest and most advanced telescopes exploring the southern skies, including the Atacama Large Millimeter Array. The ALMA works in the millimeter and submillimeter wavelength ranges, providing crucial information about star and planet formations. The ALMA currently holds the title of the world’s largest ground-based astronomy project.

The ESO recently signed an agreement with Ace Consortium to build the E-ELT’s dome and structural framework, a $455 million dollar project that is the largest contract awarded by ESO and the largest ever in the history of ground-based astronomy. The mountaintop site for the telescope has been prepared, and ESO is now beginning the building and assembly stage, a process that will take up to eight years. The ESO expects to bring the E-ELT online sometime in 2024.

Kelly Hodgkins
Kelly Hodgkins
Former Contributor
Kelly's been writing online for ten years, working at Gizmodo, TUAW, and BGR among others. Living near the White Mountains of…
Topics
Anti-surveillance clothing is getting cheaper, but don’t expect an invisibility cloak
Affordable shirts now claim to confuse facial recognition, although their protection depends heavily on the camera and software watching you
Chart, Plot, Adult

Anti-surveillance clothing is starting to look less like an art-school experiment and more like something you could actually wear outside. Shirts designed to confuse facial recognition systems now cost about as much as ordinary streetwear, although buying one won’t make you disappear.

The Guardian reports that designers are using face-like prints, unusual cuts and infrared lights to interfere with computer vision. These techniques target specific weaknesses, so their success depends on what happens to be watching you.

Read more
This spinning drone hides in plain sight using a visual illusion
This drone doesn't turn invisible. It tricks your brain into thinking it has.
Phantom Twist

For decades, engineers have chased the dream of an invisible drone. The usual approaches have involved transparent materials, camouflage coatings, or complex optical systems that bend light around an object. Researchers at Northwestern University decided to take a completely different route. Instead of hiding the drone itself, they chose to fool the human eye.

The result is Phantom Twist, an experimental drone that spins so rapidly it almost disappears into the background. It's not technically invisible, but to anyone watching, it looks more like a faint blur than a flying machine.

Read more
This smart knitted fabric can flip switches, count your steps, and even change shape
Grandma's knitting just entered its Iron Man era
Representative Image

For most of us, knitting brings to mind sweaters, scarves, and perhaps an ambitious grandmother determined to make winter more fashionable. Researchers at Harvard University, however, have a far more futuristic vision. They've transformed ordinary knitted fabric into a programmable material capable of changing shape, acting as an electrical switch, sensing movement, and potentially forming the foundation of tomorrow's wearable technology.

The research, published in Advanced Functional Materials by scientists at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), demonstrates how machine-knitted textiles can "snap" between multiple stable shapes without relying on motors or rigid mechanical parts.

Read more