The age of Big Glass is far from over.
While radio astronomy and space telescopes are all the rage in the 21st century, ground-based optical instruments still do cutting-edge science. And once it goes online, the European Southern Observatoryâs Extremely Large Telescope, under construction at 10,000 feet atop Cerro Armazones in the Chilean Andes, will give astronomers a 39-meter â thatâs nearly 128 feet â mirror to study black holes, take measurements of the universeâs rate of expansion and maybe even observe directly planets outside out solar system as the search for habitable Earth-like exoplanets continues to heat up.
Dr. Suzanne Ramsay, a Scottish-born astronomer stationed just outside of Munich, is the instrumentation project manager for what will be the largest optical telescope on the planet. She leads development of the instruments â the latest in imagers, spectrometers and other insanely sensitive technology â that will gather and analyze
Rethinking the Cast Glass Mould glassonweb.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from glassonweb.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Posted by Andy Briggs in Astronomy Essentials | Space |
February 16, 2021
When someone says “Milky Way,” do you think of the starry pathway across our sky, or of the great pinwheel-shaped galaxy in space? Both are correct!
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Michael Zuber caught the bright planets Jupiter and Saturn – above the building in this photo – near the starry band of the Milky Way, from Terlingua, Texas, on November 11, 2020. Thank you, Michael.
Do you think of the Milky Way as a starry band across a dark night sky? Or do you think of it as a great spiral galaxy in space? Both are correct. Both refer to our home galaxy, our local island in the vast ocean of the universe, composed of hundreds of billions of stars, one of which is our sun.