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CANARY ISLAND - Huge Telescope Inaugurated By King Of Spain

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Bianca
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« on: July 25, 2009, 06:41:48 am »







The Gran Telescopio Canarias, one of the the world's largest telescopes is seen at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in the Canary Island of La Palma, Spain, Friday July 24, 2009. The euro130 million (US$179 million) telescope, designed to take advantage of pristine, clear skies at the Roque de los Muchachos observatory atop the Atlantic island of La Palma, was inaugurated Friday.
« Last Edit: July 25, 2009, 06:47:11 am by Bianca » Report Spam   Logged

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Bianca
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« Reply #1 on: July 25, 2009, 06:44:15 am »









                                 King of Spain inaugurates giant telescope on La Palma
         



 

Fri Jul 24, 2009
LA PALMA,
Canary Islands
(AFP)

– Spain's King Juan Carlos on Friday inaugurated a huge telescope on the Canary Islands, billed as the world's biggest scope for visible and infrared light.

Scientists behind the Great Canary Telescope (GTC) say it marks a big technological step forward and will allow researchers to peer into the darkest and most distant corners of space.

The telescope, housed in a mountaintop observatory on the island of La Palma, will help astronomers with a wide range of research, from discovering new planets to exploring galaxies and analysing black holes.

At a cost of more than 100 million euros (143 million dollars), the device is made up of 36 separate pieces.

They fit together to form a huge circular mirror which collects light on a surface almost 82 square metres in size, according to the scope's developer, the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canaries (IAC).

The IAC says is it is the largest device of its kind in the world and is bigger than the American Keck observatory in Hawaii and the four European VLT telescopes in Chile.

Project director Pedro Alvarez said the GTC will be one of the world's leading telescopes in the coming decade.

The observatory has been working partially since March with one of its optical devices, Osiris, which picks up objects visible to the naked eye, such as stellar explosions called supernovas.

The telescope cost 104 million euros, 90 percent of which came from the Spanish government.

The rest was paid for by Mexico and the University of Florida in the United States.
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Bianca
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« Reply #2 on: July 25, 2009, 06:46:31 am »










                                       Huge telescope opens in the Canary Islands
         





Carlos Moreno,
Associated Press Writer – Fri Jul 24, 2009
LA PALMA,
Canary Islands

– One of the world's most powerful telescopes opened its shutters for the first time Friday to begin exploring faint light from distant parts of the universe. The Gran Telescopio Canarias, a euro130 million ($185 million) telescope featuring a 34-foot (10.4-meter) reflecting mirror, sits atop an extinct volcano. Its location above cloud cover takes advantage of the pristine skies in the Atlantic Ocean.

Planning for the telescope began in 1987 and has involved more than 1,000 people from 100 companies. It was inaugurated Friday by King Juan Carlos.

The observatory is located at 2,400 meters (7,870 feet) above sea-level where prevailing winds keep the atmosphere stable and transparent, the Canary Islands Astrophysics Institute said.

The institute, which runs the telescope, said it will capture the birth of stars, study characteristics of black holes and decipher some of the chemical components of the Big Bang.

The telescope is composed of 36 separate mirrors that began slowly focusing in July 2007 to eventually act as a single large reflecting surface that directs light onto a central camera point.

Among those who have done research at La Palma is Brian May, lead guitarist of rock group Queen, who studied there for part of his doctorate in astrophysics at the institute.

May, who published "BANG! The Complete History of the Universe" with astronomers Patrick Moore and Chris Lintott, composed a musical score for the telescope's inauguration.

Large reflecting telescopes began making major contributions to astronomical research when Edwin Hubble perfected the technique of capturing photographic exposures of space with the then-massive 200-inch mirror at Mount Palomar Observatory, in north San Diego County, California in Jan. 1949.

____

Associated Press Writer Harold Heckle in Madrid contributed to this report.
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