Honolulu, July 22: Hawaii was chosen on Tuesday as the site for the world’s biggest telescope, a device so powerful that it will allow scientists to see some 13 billion light years away and get a glimpse into the early years of the universe.
The telescope’s mirror – stretching almost 30 metres in diameter, or nearly the length of a Boeing 737’s wingspan – will be so large that it should be able to gather light that will have spent 13 billion years travelling to earth.
This means astronomers looking into the telescope will be able to see images of the first stars and galaxies forming – some 400 million years after the Big Bang.
“It will sort of give us the history of the universe,” Thirty Metre Telescope Observatory Corp spokesperson Charles Blue said.
The telescope, expected to be completed by 2018, will be located atop a dormant volcano that is popular with astronomers because its summit sits well above the clouds at 4 205m, offering a clear view of the sky above for 300 days a year.
Hawaii’s isolated position in the middle of the Pacific Ocean also means the area is relatively free of air pollution. Few cities on the Big Island mean there aren’t a lot of man-made lights around to disrupt observations.
–Agencies