Will the new development be able to discover other extraterrestrial life?
Alok J, Guardian
A planet (marked b) in another solar system imaged in 2005 by the VLT telescope in Chile
European astronomers have developed a new telescope with an extremely large diameter - about 42 meters. Scientists hope that the telescope will be able to discover how the universe developed in its early years, and may even provide an answer to the question of whether there is life other than on Earth.
The "Extremely Large Telescope" (ELT), as it is called, was developed by scientists from the "Consortium of European States", which operates from the Caro Parnell Observatory in Chile. It will dwarf all the observation instruments used by astronomers until today. It could be used to solve the mysteries behind various scientific issues, such as what were the first objects in the universe, how many types of primordial matter existed in it and whether there are Earth-like stars in the Milky Way galaxy.
"There are two important questions: how did the world begin and how did life begin," believes Andreas Kaufer, director of telescopes at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Caro Parnell. To answer these questions, astronomers need bigger telescopes. Last month, ESO formed a team of experts to design the structure of the ELT by the end of the year.
The team hears recommendations and advice from astronomers around the world, and is looking for a potential location for the new telescope. The list includes Chile, Tibet, Morocco, South Africa, Greenland and a place called "C Dome" - a 3,000 meter plateau in Antarctica. Cowper says that if all goes as planned, construction of the telescope will begin by 2010, and the scientific results will be seen as early as 2016.
"We have to take another step forward, a possible step in terms of our technological capabilities, and it seems that 42 meters is that step," says Cowper. The cost of the telescope may reach one billion euros.
The sharpest eye that allows astronomers to observe the world today is the eye of the "Very Large Telescope" (VLT), an array of four telescopes worth 500 million euros that are placed on a mountain 2,500 meters high in Caro Parnell. It was these telescopes that produced the first images of planets outside our solar system; managed to collect data on distant stars and enabled important observations of black holes. However, the VLT is unable to see minor planets in other solar systems. These faint objects at the edges of the universe, which give astronomers clues about its birth, are barely observable with current technology.
Larger telescopes can collect more light and therefore also produce more information. The ELT will be able to detect objects that could not be observed before, such as cold stars, young galaxies and small planets. At the same time, it will gather even more information about already familiar objects. The ELT will also be able to image individual stars in distant galaxies. Another advantage of the ELT is the possibility to photograph planets around other glasses. The light coming from the suns overshadows the lights reflected from the planets that surround them, so it is very difficult to observe planets. Due to this difficulty, astronomers have so far been able to image only three planets of other solar systems directly.
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