Man's eternal quest to know more about space and about extra-terrestrial life is a never ending ordeal. In the latest attempt 15 Europeon Countries join togather to build the worlds largest telescope European Extremely Large Telescope (EELT). The proposed technical eye could peep into the other planets surfaces for activities and view the mountains or geographic locations on the target planet. And probably beyond solar system too. This becomes possible due to the mirror inside the telescope that will measure 39metres across which is approximately four times wider than today's biggest telescope in today's world.
The European Southern Observatory project proposes to build the EELT at Chile in a pollution free environment. The twin infrared/optical telescope will sit on top of a 3,060metre mountaintop, giving unparralled views of the sky above, and should hopefully come online in 2022. The E-ELT project gort the green signal from almost all the 15 countries that met recently over the issue. Astronomers feel that this would pave way to unravel the mysteries of space to a better extent. The below details have been sourced from the BBC News & Science for reader enrichment only:
1. 39.3m-wide primary mirror (M1) is made up of almost 800 segments
2. M2 is 4.2m wide and hangs upside down. It will weigh less than 12t
3. 3.8m-wide M3 sits in a hole in M1. M3 moves with M2 and M4 to focus
4. 2.4m-wide M4 can deform its shape to remove twinkling in stars
5. M5 is 2.6m x 2.1m. It stabilises the light on to the instrument detectors
6. Lasers make artificial stars on the sky to help correct the imaging
7. E-ELT will have two instrument decks; each deck to hold three units
8. The telescope will be sensitive to visible and near-infrared light
The project costing approximately 1083 million euro, will begin this year as the European Southern Observatory is celebrating the 50th anniversary. The 15 countries are Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and UK. (With inputs from internet-AarKay)
