University of Texas to contribute $50m to world’s largest telescope

The world’s largest telescope moved a step closer to reality on Thursday when University of Texas System regents authorized the Austin campus to commit $50 million from its research reserves to the project. The $1 billion Giant Magellan Telescope is to be built in Chile’s Atacama Desert, one of the world’s highest and driest locations, attributes conducive for gazing at the heavens. With mirrors forming an optical surface whose aperture will measure 80 feet in diameter, the telescope will collect more light than any previous one, enabling researchers to look for evidence of life on other planets, study how stellar matter congealed after the Big Bang and otherwise study the complexities of the universe. Source: Education News