World’s most advanced mirror for giant telescope completed
Scientists at the University of Arizona and in California have completed the most challenging large astronomical mirror ever made.
For the past several years, a group of optical scientists and engineers working at the UA Steward Observatory Mirror Laboratory underneath the UA’s football stadium have been polishing an 8.4-m (27 ½ feet) diameter mirror with an unusual, highly asymmetric shape.
By the standards used by optical scientists, the “degree of difficulty” for this mirror is 10 times that of any previous large telescope mirror. The mirror surface matches the desired prescription to a precision of 19 nm—so smooth that if it were the size of the continental U.S., the highest mountains would be little more than a half-inch high.
This mirror, and six more like it, will form the heart of the 25-m Giant Magellan Telescope, providing more than 380 square meters, or 4,000 square feet, of light-collecting area. The Giant Magellan Telescope will lead a next generation of giant telescopes that will explore planets around other stars and the formation of stars, galaxies and black holes in the early universe.
Buell Jannuzi, director of the UA Steward Observatory and professor of astronomy, said, “Making this first GMT mirror required all the expertise and experience that the University has built up over 25 years of making telescope mirrors and a great deal of innovation to push beyond previous limits in optical fabrication and testing. In achieving this remarkable milestone, the team built and demonstrated all the equipment and techniques that will lead to efficient production of the remaining mirrors for the GMT.”
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http://www.rdmag.com/news/2012/10/world’s-most-advanced-mirror-giant-telescope-completed
