Deep in the Chilean desert, the tip of a 3,000m-high mountain was blasted off on Thursday to create the site for a telescope set to be the world’s largest and that could bring science closer to the answer of whether there is life elsewhere in the universe.
The European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) is designed around a primary mirror 39m in diameter that is expected to gather about 15 times more light than the largest functioning optical telescopes.
Construction is expected to be completed in 2024.
Photo: AFP
It is to be so powerful that it should be able to detect gases in the atmospheres of certain kinds of planets outside our solar system, and even biomarker molecules, an indicator of a biological process.
Such signs — if indeed they exist — could offer humanity the opportunity to detect the presence of extraterrestrial life.
Its operator, the European Southern Observatory (ECHO), says the telescope should also be able to find more extrasolar Earth-like rocky planets, building on discoveries made by the Kepler space observatory and others in recent years.
It may also provide researchers with important pieces in the cosmology jigsaw puzzle, from probing the fundamental laws of physics and dark energy to looking more closely at interactions around the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way.
“The E-ELT will no doubt produce discoveries that we simply can’t imagine today, and it will surely inspire numerous people around the world to think about science, technology and our place in the universe,” ECHO director-general Tim de Zeeuw said at a ceremony to celebrate the blasting.
The Cerro Amazones peak was due to lose an estimated 30m of height after the blasting, as engineers created a plateau for the observatory to be built upon.
It is in Chile’s Atacama Desert, the driest in the world, where cloudless skies provide ideal observing conditions. Many of the world’s top telescopes are in the area, including the ALMA array, which had its final antennae delivered this week.
The ECHO has previously said the cost of the E-ELT would be just over 1 billion euros (US$1.36 billion), funded by its 14 member states.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the