Astro Brief: Giant Telescopes

By Dr. Mike Reed

Published May 25, 2023 at 9:45 AM CDT

The Cerro Amazones mountain in the Chilean desert, near ESO's Paranal Observatory, will be the site for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), which, with its 39-metre diameter mirror, will be the world’s biggest eye on the sky. Here, an artist's rendering shows how the telescope will look on the mountain when it is complete in 2024.

Not your backyard telescopes, these giant telescopes help us see to the edge of the universe.

While space telescopes are limited in size, ground telescopes can be as large as necessary. These massive ground-based telescopes continue to be developed alongside space telescopes such as the JWST as the future of giant telescopes may help to answer some of humanities most pressing questions about our universe.

Astro Brief is a collaboration between KSMU, the Missouri Space Grant, and MSU's Department of Physics, Astronomy and Materials Science. Hosted by Dr. Mike Reed, Astro Brief focuses on astronomical events, the field of astronomy, and astronomy-related guests. It airs Thursdays at 9:45 am on KSMU.