Date Published: June 22, 2021
Researchers at the Wyant College of Optical Sciences (OSC) are helping to build what Daewook Kim, Ph.D., an OSC professor who specializes in optical engineering science, calls the “telescope of the future.” “We are trying to redefine what we can do on the ground in terms of looking at space,” Dr. Kim said. Intended to be one of the most powerful telescopes on Earth, the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) will have a primary mirror 24 meters across, and it will be about 100 times more powerful in terms of light collection capability and enable 10 times higher imaging resolution than the Hubble Space Telescope. It will be installed at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, a location with good viewing conditions more than 300 nights a year.
Underneath the stands of the Arizona Wildcats Football Stadium, engineers of UArizona's Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab manufacture the world's largest and most lightweight telescope mirrors. At the center of the process is a giant spinning furnace, the only one of its kind. Damien Jemison, Giant Magellan Telescope – GMTO Corporation