Constructing the largest telescope

#construction #telescope #space #astronomy #planets #ELT #Europe #Chile #stars

The European Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) is being built in Chile, and when completed, it will be the world’s largest optical telescope (about five times larger than current ones). The main mirror of the telescope will measure 39 meters across and will be located on a 3,000-meter-high mountain in the Atacama Desert. It will begin operations in 2024. The construction costs are estimated at $1.12 billion.

The telescope will have the ability to find smaller planets and image larger ones, going as far as characterizing their atmospheres. This is being considered one of the greatest examples of the possibilities of science, and will help in discoveries of planets orbiting other stars, which in turn might be exo-planets.

Atacama Desert was chosen because of its dry atmosphere that provides perfect observing conditions. By the 2020s, the region will have almost 20 percent of the World’s astronomical infrastructure.

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A telescope with better range and clearer observation. A great chance for humanity to know more about space & universe, spot some exoplanets, and some aliens.

Skyview App

#space #Skyview #Application #Stars #Planets #StarGazing #constellations

An amazing application! If you want to know more about the stars in the night sky that can be viewed from the naked eye, then do check it out. It also tells you where the planets are.

It can calibrate itself to your location and if you use the app on the night sky, it will point out the stars, constellations and other information by using the camera of your phone.

Pretty interesting. I had been wondering about a star in the sky, turns out it is named Capella in the Auriga constellation. 😊

A glimpse into early universe

#Galaxy #space #telescope #stars #planets #BigBang #MACS1423

A galaxy almost 13.1 billion years in the past has been discovered by astronomers, an era just 700million years after the Big Bang. These early galaxies were close to the beginning of the universe, hence they fall within the “Epoch of Reionisation“, a period about a billion years after the Big Bang when the universe became transparent.

It is believed that the universe was a cloud of cold atomic hydrogen after the Big Bang. The first stars and galaxies condensed out of the cloud and started emitting light and ionising radiation. The radiation melted away the atomic hydrogen like a hot sun clearing fog, and the first galaxies spread their light through the universe.

The new galaxy is named MACS1423-z7p64, is at a redshift of 7.6, which means that it is about 13.1 billion years in the past.

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What is with the name of the galaxy? Its amazing, how new discoveries are making us learn more and more about the universe.