Giant Magellan Telescope

 

Artist's conception of the Giant Magellan Telescope. Courtesy of the Carnegie Observatories, Carnegie Institute for Science. The Giant Magellan Telescope, currently planned for completion in 2018, will have seven mirrors, each 8.4 meters (nearly 28 feet) in diameter that will work together as one.  Improvements in “adaptive optics” will make it possible to adjust the mirrors automatically thousands of times per second to compensate for rapid changes in the air.  Projects for the new telescope will include:
 
  • Determining the large-scale structure of matter and energy in the universe.
  • Understanding the dawn of the modern Universe and the first stars and galaxies.
  • Understanding the formation and evolution of black holes.
  • Studying the formation of stars and planets.
  • Understanding the impact of the space environment on the Earth.
 
Wendy Freedman describes the Giant Magellan Telescope on a short video at the following location: http://obs.carnegiescience.edu/animations/GMT-short.mov