New $2 Billion Telescope will be fitted with a 'Large Earth Finder'
Seven of the world’s largest mirrors that make-up one giant 80 feet/25.4 meter diameter mirror. Fourteen stories high and weighing 2,100 tons. With four times the resolving power of the James Webb Space Telescope.
The Giant Magellan Telescope is gradually taking shape on a mountain top 8,255 feet/2,516 meters up at Las Campanas Observatory, northeast of La Serena in Chile.
Why? To image planets in other star systems close-up to see if they’re Earth-like and habitable.
‘Extremely large’ era begins
The Giant Magellan Telescope is one of a handful of what astronomers imaginatively call “extremely large” ground-based telescopes that are going to change astrophysics by producing higher resolution images that make it easier to find Earth-like planets around other stars.
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