The world's largest optical telescope is now being built in the Atacama Desert in Chile, adding to the current telescope facilities in the region. Dubbed as the Giant Magellan Telescope, it is being built by a U.S.-led consortium of universities and research institutions on a remote mountaintop.
"We are thrilled to be breaking ground on the Giant Magellan Telescope site at such an exciting time for astronomy," Dr. Taft Armandroff, Board Chair, and Director of the McDonald Observatory, said in an official statement. "With its unprecedented size and resolving power, the Giant Magellan Telescope will allow current and future generations of astronomers to continue the journey of cosmic discovery."
China is reportedly building a humongous telescope the size of a football field, according to a previous HNGN report. However, the telescope, called Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), is different because it is a radio telescope, primarily designed to pick-up radio signals, potentially from exterrestrial life.
The GMT aims to build seven large mirrors in order to create a massive lens that will span 85 feet in diameter. The sheer size eclipses the Hubble Telescope, which has an 8-foot lens, according to Popular Science. GMT will also outsize the Great Canary Telescope, located in Spain, which is currently the world's largest optical telescope with a 34-feet aperture.
The groundbreaking ceremony for the GMT was held Wednesday at the Las Campanas Observatory in the Chilean Andes, Space reported.
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