tude (Chile is quite seismically active).
“It’s a machine that has to do many things,” McCarthy said.
The GMT project began in 2003 when several universities got together and considered what it would be like to build a telescope with multiple mirror segments. Some $500 million has been raised for the project from private donations and international partnerships, including individual donations of $20 million and $30 million.
Astrophysics has come a long way, but with the Giant Magellan Telescope it will make a huge jump forward. Astronomers, McCarthy explained, have learned to deal with distortion from the Earth’s atmosphere during their work by removing red and infrared light waves. Magellan will be able to receive 10 times as many light waves across its aperture as the Hubble Telescope.
“It’s like noise-canceling headphones,” McCarthy said, “but it works for light rather than sound.”
What will GMT do for our daily lives?
“It will improve our lives in a big way,” McCarthy said. Much of the technology we enjoy today, he said, has come from physics and astronomy. “Life is so much more richer when you know about the world you live in.”
The first people to use Magellan will be those associated with the project. But McCarthy said he expects any scientist with a project approved by scientific groups will be able to use it.
Asked what he would first look at when Magellan goes live, McCarthy said he would point the huge telescopic eye at a place in the universe where nothing can now be observed and peer back as far as possible.
Scientists can now look at galaxies formed 1 million light years ago. Magellan will extend their ability to look at galaxies billions of light years ago, back to the Big Bang, approximately 13 1/2 billion years ago. They will be able to look back to a time when galaxies were very young and learn why they are shaped the way they are.
“It’s going to be a good era in astronomy in about 10 years, and going on for decades,” McCarthy said.
For more information about the Giant Magellan Telescope, visit the project’s website at gmto.org.