A Giant Magellan Telescope Needs Giant Mirrors
The Giant Magellan Telescope doesn’t seem so giant in the renderings, until you see how the mirrors are made.
The telescope will require seven total mirrors each 27 feet (8.4 meters) in diameter for a total combined diameter of 24.5 meters. Half of an Olympic size pool’s length. A little over four times the diameter of the James Webb Space Telescope.
According to the website, the mirrors are cast at the University of Arizona mirror lab and take four years each to make. They’re made from blocks of Japanese glass laid out in a giant oven. The whole process of …read more
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