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Giant Magellan Telescope
Summary
The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) is a 25.4-meter, ground-based, extremely large telescope under construction at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile's Atacama Desert. Commissioning is anticipated in the late 2020s. Once complete, the Giant Magellan will be the largest Gregorian telescope ever built observing in optical and mid-infrared (320–25000 nm) light. The telescope uses seven of the world’s largest mirrors to form a light collecting area of 368 square meters.
The Giant Magellan Telescope is expected to have a resolving power 10 times that of the Hubble Space Telescope and four times that of the James Webb Space Telescope, although it will be unable to image in the same infrared frequencies available to telescopes in space. Scientists will use the Giant Magellan to study nearly all aspects of astrophysics — from searching for signs of life on distant exoplanets to investigating the cosmic origins of chemical elements. , six mirrors have been cast and the construction of the summit facility has begun.
The Giant Magellan Telescope is a part of the US Extremely Large Telescope Program (US-ELTP), as of 2018 . The US-ELTP will provide US-based astronomers with NSF funded all-sky observing access to both the Giant Magellan Telescope and Thirty Meter Telescope. The program was ranked as the highest ground-based priority in the National Academy of Sciences Astro2020 Decadal Survey which noted that the US-ELTP will provide “observational capabilities unmatched in space or the ground and open an enormous discovery space for new observations and discoveries not yet anticipated."
The Giant Magellan Telescope began casting its primary mirrors in 2005 and started site construction in 2015. As of 2022, six of seven primary mirrors have been cast, the first of seven adaptive secondary mirrors are underway, and manufacturing of the telescope mount is underway. Other telescope subsystems are in final design stages.
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