Where are the biggest telescopes on earth? Large optical telescopes of the future why build them
Thanks to the telescopes, scientists made amazing discoveries: they found a huge number of planets outside the solar system, learned about the existence of black holes in the centers of galaxies. But the universe is so huge that it is only a grain of knowledge. Here are ten existing and future giants among land telescopes that give scientists the opportunity to study the past universe and recognize new facts. Perhaps, with the help of one of them, it will even be possible to detect the ninth planet.
Largesouth Africantelescope (SALT)
This 9.2-meter telescope is the largest ground optical device in the southern hemisphere. It has been functioning since 2005 and is concentrated on spectroscopic surveys (registers spectra of various types of radiation). The device can view about 70% of the sky observed in Saterland, South Africa.
KECK I and II Telescopes
Double 10-meter telescopes in the bracket observatory are in second place in size among optical instruments on Earth. They are located near the top of Mauna Kea Mountain in Hawaii. Keck. I. Began operated in 1993. A few years later, in 1996, was launched KECK II.. In 2004, the first adaptive optics system with a laser guide star was deployed on the combined telescopes. It creates an artificial star stain as a reference point for the correction of atmospheric distortions when viewing the sky.
Photo: Ctrl.info. Large Canary Telescope (GTC)
The 10,4-meter telescope is located at the peak of the extinct volcano Mucachechos on the Canary Island of Palma. It is known as an optical device with the largest mirror in the world. It consists of 36 hexagonal segments. GTC has several auxiliary tools. For example, a Canaricam camera that can explore the infrared light of the middle range emitted by stars and planets. Canaricam also has a unique ability to block bright star light and make weak planets on photographs more noticeable.
Photo: Astro.ufl Radio telescope Observatory Areshibibo
This is one of the most recognizable ground telescope in the world. It has been functioning since 1963 and is a huge 30-meter radio radiopling plate next to the city of Arecibo in Puerto Rico. A huge reflector makes a telescope particularly sensitive. It is able to detect a weak radio source (distant quasars and galaxies that radiate radio waves) in just a few minutes of observation.
Photo: PhysicSworld Complex of radio telescope Alma.
One of the largest terrestrial astronomical instruments is represented in the form of 66 12-meter radiance. The complex is located at an altitude of 5000 meters in the Atakama desert in Chile. The first scientific studies were held in 2011. The ALMA radio telescope has one important purpose. With their help, astronomers want to explore the processes that occurred throughout the first hundred millions of years after a large explosion.
Photo: Wikipedia Up to this point, we talked about existing telescopes. But now many new ones are built. Very soon they will begin to function and significantly expand the possibilities of science.
Lsst.
This is a wide-angle reflector telescope, which will shoot a specific sky area every few nights. It will be located in Chile, on the top of the mountain gray-pass. While the project is only in development. The full functioning of the telescope is planned by 2022. Nevertheless, he already places high hopes. Astronomers expect that LSST will give them the best idea of \u200b\u200bthe celestial bodies located on a large distance from the sun. Also, scientists suggest that this telescope will be able to notice space stones, which theoretically be faced with the Earth in the future.
Photo: lsst. Giant Magellan Telescope
The telescope whose construction is planned to be completed by 2022 will be in the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. Scientists believe that the telescope is four times the ability to collect light compared to the currently existing optical instruments. With its help, astronomers will be able to open exoplanets (planets outside the solar system) and study the properties of dark matter.
Photo: Wikipedia Thirty meter telescope
The thirty-meter telescope will be located in Hawaii, next to the bracket observatory. It is planned that it will be operated in 2025-2030. The diaphragm of the device is able to provide a resolution 12 times higher than that of the Hubble Space Telescope.
Photo: Wikipedia Radio telescope SKA.
SKA antennas will be placed in South Africa and Australia. Now the project is still at the construction stage. But the first observations are scheduled for 2020. SKA sensitivity will be 50 times higher than the sensitivity of any ever created radio telescope. With its help, astronomers will be able to explore signals from a newer universe - time when the first stars and galaxies occurred.
Photo: Wikipedia Extremely large telescope (ELT)
The telescope will be located on Mount Cerro Amazone in Chile. It is planned that it will start working only in 2025. Nevertheless, it has already become famous for a huge mirror, which will consist of 798 hexagonal segments with a diameter of 1.4 meters each. The technical characteristics of ELT will allow it to study the composition of the atmosphere of the extranerect planets.
Photo: Wikipedia The first telescope was built in 1609 by the Italian astronomer Galileo Galileem. A scientist based on rumors of the invention by the dutch of the visual pipe, solved its device and made a sample, which was used for the first time for cosmic observations. The first Galilee telescope had modest dimensions (pipe length 1245 mm, lens diameter 53 mm, eyepiece 25 diopters), an imperfect optical scheme and a 30-fold increase. But allowed to make a whole series of wonderful discoveries: detect four satellites of the planet Jupiter, Venus phases, spots on The sun, the mountains on the surface of the moon, the presence of the Disc of Saturn appendages at two opposite points.
More than four hundred years have passed - on Earth and even in space, modern telescopes help earthlings to look into the distant cosmic worlds. The larger the diameter of the telescope mirror, the more powerful optical installation.
Multiecal telescope
Located on Mount Mount Hopkins, at an altitude of 2606 meters above sea level, in Arizona in the United States. The diameter of the mirror of this telescope is 6.5 meters. This telescope was built back in 1979. In 2000, he was improved. It is called multisercal, because it consists of 6 precisely fitted segments that constitute one large mirror.
Telescopes Magellan.
Two telescope, "Magellan -1" and "Magellan-2" are located in the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, in the mountains, at an altitude of 2400 m, the diameter of their mirrors is 6.5 m in each. Telescopes began to work in 2002.
And on March 23, 2012, the construction of another more powerful telescope "Magellan" was launched - "Giant Magelf Telescope", he must enter into account in 2016. In the meantime, the vertex one of the mountains was demolished by the explosion to clear the place for construction. Giant telescope will consist of seven mirrors 8.4 meters Each that is equivalent to one mirror with a diameter of 24 meters, for this it was already called "Semilaz".
Separated twins telescopes "Gemini"
Two brother telescope, each of which is located in another part of the world. One - "Gemini North" stands at the top of the extinct volcano Mauna Kea in Hawaii, at an altitude of 4200 m. The other is "Gemini South," is located on Mount Serra Pacon (Chile) to the height of 2700 m.
Both telescopes are identical the diameters of their mirrors are 8.1 metersThey were built in 2000 and belong to the Observatory "Gemini". Telescopes are located on different hemispheres of land to be available for observation all the star sky. Telescope management systems are adapted to work via the Internet, so astronomers do not have to travel to different Hemispheres of the Earth. Each of the mirrors of these telescopes is made up of 42 hexagonal fragments that were soldered and polished. These telescopes are created according to the most advanced technologies, which makes the Observatory of "Gemini" by one of the advanced astronomical laboratories today.
Northern "Gemini" on the Hawaii
Telescope "Subaru"
This telescope belongs to the Japanese National Astronomical Observatory. A is located on Hawaii, at an altitude of 4139 m, next door to one of the telescopes "Gemini". The diameter of its mirror is 8.2 meters. "Subaru" is equipped with the world in the world "thin" mirror.: His thickness is 20 cm. Its weight - 22.8 tons. This allows you to use a drive system, each of which transfers its effort to the mirror, giving it an ideal surface in any position, What allows you to achieve the best image quality.
With this dormitory telescope, the most distant galaxies known to date, located at a distance of 12.9 billion St. years, 8 new Saturnians Saturn, photographed protoplanetic clouds.
By the way, Subaru is in Japanese means "Pleiads" - the name of this beautiful star cluster.
Japanese telescope "Subaru" on the harvesters
Hobby Eberley telescope (no)
Located in the United States on the Mount Folks, at an altitude of 2072 m, and belongs to the Observatory of Mac-Donald. The diameter of its mirror is about 10 m. Despite the impressive sizes, Hobby Eberley costs its creators of only $ 13.5 million. Save the budget was determined due to some constructive features: the mirror of this telescope is not parabolic, and spherical, not solid - consists of 91 segments. In addition, the mirror is under a fixed angle to the horizon (55 °) and can only rotate at 360 ° around its axis. All this significantly reduces the cost of construction. This telescope specializes in spectrography and is successfully used to search for exoplanets and measuring the speed of rotation of space objects.
Big South African telescope (SALT)
It belongs to the South African Astronomical Observatory and is located in South Africa, on the Karu Plateau, at an altitude of 1783 m. The dimensions of its mirror 11x9.8 m. It is the largest in the southern hemisphere of our planet. A Made in Russia, on the "Lytkarinsky Plant of Optical Glass". This telescope has become an analogue of the Hobby Eberley telescope in the USA. But it was upgraded - the spherical aberration of the mirror was adjusted and the field of view was increasing, due to the fact that in addition to working in the spectrograph mode, this telescope is able to receive excellent photos of celestial objects with a large resolution.
The largest telescope in the world ()
It is on top of the extinct volcano Mucachechos on one of the Canary Islands, at an altitude of 2396 m. The diameter of the main mirror - 10.4 m. In the creation of this telescope, Spain, Mexico and the United States took part. By the way, this international project cost 176 million US dollars, of which 51% paid Spain.
The Mirror of the Bolshoi Canary Telescope, composed of 36 hexagonal parts - the largest of the existing current in the world. Although this is the largest telescope in the world in the size of the mirror, it is impossible to call it the most powerful optical indicators, since the world has systems that exceed it in their area.
Located on Mount Graham, at an altitude of 3.3 km, in Arizona (USA). This telescope is risening the International Observatory Mount Graham and was built on the money of the USA, Italy and Germany. The construction is a system of two mirrors with a diameter of 8.4 meters, which is equivalent to one mirror with a diameter of 11.8 m. The centers of two mirrors are at a distance of 14.4 meters, which makes the resolution of the telescope equivalent to a 22-meter, and this is almost 10 times more than that of the famous Space Telescope "Hubble". Both mirrors of a large binocular telescope are part of one optical instrument and together are one huge binoculars - the most powerful optical device in the world at the moment.
KECK I and KECK II - another pair of twin telescopes. Located next to the Subaru telescope at the top of the Hawaiian Volcano Mauna Kea (height 4139 m). The diameter of the main mirror of each of the keks is 10 meters - each of them is separately the second largest telescope after the large Canary. But this telescope system surpasses the Canary for "Troopy". Parabolic mirrors of these telescopes are composed of 36 segments, each of which is equipped with a special reference system, with computer control.
A very large telescope is located in the Atakama desert in the Mountain Arrays of Chilean Andes, on Mount Paranal, 2635 m above sea level. And belongs to the European Southern Observatory (ESO), which includes 9 European countries.
The system of four telescopes is 8.2 meters, and four more auxiliary 1.8 meters on Lights are equivalent to one instrument with a diameter of a mirror of 16.4 meters.
Each of the four telescopes can work and separately, receiving photos on which the stars are visible to the 30th Star magnitude. All telescopes immediately work rarely, it is too expensive. More often, each of the large telescopes works in a pair with its 1.8 meter assistant. Each of the auxiliary telescopes can move along the rails relative to his "big brother", occupying the position most favorable to observe this object. A very large telescope is the most advanced astronomical system in the world. It was made of astronomical discoveries, for example, the world's first direct image of exoplanets was obtained.
Space telescope "Hubble"
The Hubble Space Telescope is a joint NASA and European Space Agency project, an automatic observatory on earthly orbit, named after the American Astronoma Edwina Habble. The diameter of its mirror is only 2.4 m, What is less than the biggest telescopes on Earth. But due to the lack of impact of the atmosphere, the resolution of the telescope at 7 is 10 times more than a similar telescope located on Earth. "Hubble" owns many scientific discoveries: the collision of Jupiter with a comet, a Pluto Relief Image, Polar Lights on Jupiter and Saturn ...
Telescope "Hubble" on earthly orbit
Hi, corrades. Something I am a fit to you mostly spent objects, but garbage. Let's get on the current object - on a real astrophysical observatory with a huge telescope.
So, here it is, a special astrophysical observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences, known as the object under code 115.
It is located in the North Caucasus at the foot of the Mountain Shepherd in the Zelenchuk district of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic of Russia (p. Nizhny Arkhyz and Stanitsa Zelenchuk). Currently, the observatory is the largest Russian astronomical center of land observations for the universe, which has large telescopes: the six-meter optical reflector of BTA and the Ring Radio Telececope Ratan-600. Founded in June 1966. 
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With this gantry crane, the crane was built by a observatory.
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You can read in more detail http://www.sao.ru/hq/sekbta/40_sao/sao_40/sao_40.htm here. 
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The observatory was created as a center for collective use to ensure the operation of the optical telescope of BTA (a large azimuth telescope) with a diameter of a mirror of 6 meters and the RANAN-600 radio telescope with a diameter of a ring antenna of 600 meters, then the world's largest astronomical instruments. They were put into operation in 1975-1977 and are intended to study the objects of near and far space by the methods of ground astronomy. 
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Looking at this futuristic door so I want to go inside and experience all the power. 
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Here we are inside. 
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Before us is the old control panel. Apparently, it does not work. 
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And here is the most interesting. BTA - "Great Azimuth Telescope". This miracle is the largest telescope in the world since 1975, when he surpassed the 5-meter Haile Palomarian Observatory telescope, and through 1993, when the Kek telescope was earned with a 10-meter segmented mirror.
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Yes, 
That bracket itself.
BTA is a reflector telescope. The main mirror with a diameter of 605 cm is of a paraboloid of rotation. The focal length of the mirror is 24 meters, the weight of the mirror without taking into account the rim - 42 tons. The Optical Scheme of BTA provides for work in the main focus of the main mirror and the two focus of failure. In both cases, you can apply the corrector of the aberration.
The telescope is installed on an alt-azimuthal mont. The mass of the rolling part of the telescope is about 650 tons. The total weight of the telescope is about 850 tons.
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Chief designer - t. N. Bagrat Konstantinovich Ioannisiani (Lomo). 
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The optical telescope system was manufactured at the Leningrad optical mechanical combination. IN AND. Lenin (Lomo), Lytkarinsky plant of optical glass (Lzos), State Optical Institute. S. I. Vavilova (GOI).
For its manufacture, even individual workshops that did not have analogues were built.
Do you know that?
- The billet for the mirror, cast in 1964 cooled over two years.
- To process the workpiece, 12,000 carats of natural diamonds were used in the form of a powder, treatment with a grinding machine made on a Kolomna plant of heavy machine-tooling was carried out within 1.5 years.
- The mass of the billet for the mirror was 42 tons.
- In total, the creation of a unique mirror continued for 10 years.
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The main mirror of the telescope is exposed to temperature deformation, as in all huge telescopes of this type. If the temperature of the mirror changes faster than 2 ° per day, the resolution of the telescope falls one and a half times. Therefore, special air conditioners are installed inside that support the optimal temperature mode. It is forbidden to open the dome of the telescope when the temperature difference outside and inside the tower is greater than 10 °, since such temperature differences can lead to the destruction of the mirror. 
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Plumb 
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Unfortunately, the North Caucasus is not the best place for such megaches. The fact is that in the mountains open to all winds a very high turbulence of the atmosphere, which significantly worsens visibility and does not allow the use of all the power of this telescope. 
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On May 11, 2007, the carriage of the first main mirror of BTA was launched to the Optical Glass Lytkarinsky Plant (Lzos) with a view to deep upgrades. Now the telescope has established the second main mirror. After processing in Lytkarino - removal from the surface of 8 millimeters of glass and interimating the telescope must be in the top ten of the most accurate in the world. Modernization completed in November 2017. Installation and Studies are scheduled for 2018. 
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Hope you like a walk. We go to the exit. 
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Decorated with "
A large azimuth (BTA) telescope (BTA) of the Special Astrophysical Observatory (CAO) of the Russian Academy of Sciences again leads observations of heavenly objects. In 2018, the Observatory replaced the chief element of the telescope - a mirror with a diameter of 6 m, but it turned out to be unsuitable for full-fledged work. On the telescope returned the 1979 release mirror.
Better smaller
BTA, located in the village of Nizhny Arkhyz in the mountains of Karachay-Cherkessia, is one of the world's largest. The telescope was launched in 1975.
In 1960-1970, two mirrors were made for BTA in the Moscow Region Lytkarinsky Plant of Optic Glass (LZOS). Glass billets with a thickness of about 1 m and weighing about 70 tons were first cooled over two years, and then their seven years were polished with a diamond powder. The first mirror worked on the telescope four years. In 1979, due to the imperfection of the surface, it was replaced.
In the 1990s, scientists raised the question of the new replacement of the mirror. By that time, it has repeatedly passed the re-imposition procedure: about once every five years with the mirror with acids, the reflective layer of aluminum was washed with acids, and then a new coating was applied. Each such procedure worsened the surface of the mirror on the micro level. This affected the quality of observations.
In the early 2000s, wounds went close to this issue. Two options were offered: resurrecting the first mirror of BTA and the radical update of the telescope with the replacement of a 6-meter mirror per 8-meter.
In 2004, it was possible to buy in Germany a blank of the mirror of this size, made for the Very Large Telescope complex (VLT, a very large telescope) and not needed to him. The 8-meter mirror would provide a new level of township and return the Russian telescope in the top ten largest in the world.
However, this option has disadvantages: high cost and high risks. Buying the workpiece would cost € 6-8 million, about the same amount would cost polishing - it was necessary to do in Germany, because in Russia there are no equipment for mirrors of this diameter. It would be necessary to redo the top of the telescope design and reconfigure all the scientific equipment under a new light.
"When Introducing the 8-meter mirror in fact, only the Telescope Dome would remain untouched," Dmitry Kudryavtsev's deputy director of Sao Dmitry Kudryavtsev explained. "And now I will now imagine all this in Russian realities with interruptions of financing scientific projects. We could easily be in a situation where the telescope is disassembled literally into pieces, money does not come, and we are indefinitely at all lose access to observations. "
It turned out as before
Consider how much the alteration of the telescope design costs, did not even become. "It was obvious that I won't find such money the Russian Academy of Sciences," said the director of SAO Valery Vlayuk. In 2004, the Academy decided to restore the first mirror of BTA, which kept in a special container since 1979.
Photo: Kristina Kormilitsyn, Kommersant
The task again was commissioned the Lzos, which is now entering the Holding "Schwab" State Corporation "Rostech". To eliminate "congenital" defects from the surface of a mirror of 28 square meters. M was cut 8 mm glass, because of which its weight has decreased by almost a ton. Polishing was planned to spend in three years, but because of the financing interruptions, it was stretched for 10 years.
"The price increase is explained in the main financial crises that occurred between 2004 and 2018, and the following inflation," explains the departure of the Lzos Scientific and Production Complex Vladimir Patrikeev .- For example, if in 2007 we brought a mirror from the Caucasus to the Moscow region for 3.5 million rub., In 2018, brought back already for 11 million rubles. "
The renovated mirror arrived in the Nizhny Arkhyz in February 2018. On the transportation of a particularly fragile cargo weighing 42 tons that took eight days.
Before sending to the observatory, a renovated mirror was certified for Lzos. However, after it is installed, significant deviations from the characteristics specified in the technical task were discovered in the BTU's standard rim.
Parabola lasted the process in a circle
"The quality of the mirror surface is estimated by several parameters, the main of which is roughness and compliance with parabolic shape," says Mr. Kudryavtsev. "The Lzos brilliantly coped with a decrease in the surface roughness of the mirror. If the second mirror of the BTA is 20 nanometers, then only one nanometer has been renovated. But with the shape of the mirror there were problems. "
Based on the technical task, the standard deviation from the perfect paraboloid should have been not more than 95 nanometers. In reality, this parameter was at the level of 1 micron, which is ten times worse than the desired value.
Problems with a renovated mirror have become clear almost immediately after its installation in the summer of 2018. Already then it was decided to return the new mirror only. But the team of the observatory was exhausted by the previous replacement, besides, it is possible to conduct this multi-month procedure only in the warm season.
BTA was commissioned with a poor-quality mirror, if possible, adjusting the existing shortcomings using mechanical systems. Due to unstable and overall focusing, it was impossible to conduct photometric observations on it. Other BTA scientific programs were performed, but with loss of efficiency.
The return of the former mirror began on June 3, 2019. In September, test observations and final tuning telescope were conducted. Since October, BTA has returned to full work. 5 million rubles were spent on the operation.
"We are pleased with the topics of the old mirror passed. It perfectly stood in the frame, the quality of images at the best level. So far, we will work like this, "director of the RAS, assured" Kommersant "
Who is to blame and what to do
The Joint Commission of the SAO RAS, Lzos and NGOs Optics recognized the renovated mirror not corresponding to the technical assignment and need to be refined. The formal cause is the absence of a stationary frame and computer modeling error at the factory.
In Soviet times, the first mirror was polished in the real frame of a telescope, which was then transported from Lzos to the Caucasus and installed on BTA. For polishing the second mirror at the factory, a rim prototype was created - its simplified cheap copy.
When in 2004 the Russian Academy of Sciences decided to restore the first mirror, the project assumed the creation of a new frame imitation. Old in 2007 was recycled.
And then there were problems with financing - it was not possible to create a copy of the BTA rim. Then specialists decided that in the twentieth century it is possible to polish the mirror not in a rigid frame, but using computer simulation.
When performing control measurements, the mirror was maintained by steel ribbon. The deformation of glass that occurred at the same time was modeled, was checked experimentally and was taken into account when adjusting the operation of a polishing machine. However, the heterogeneity of the glass turned out to be much higher than the calculated one. In the standard frame, the renovated mirror showed a deviation from a given form by order worse than expected.
The Commission recognized that the first mirror must be added to the imitation of BTA rim. While it is stored in Nizhny Arkhayz. How much will the repetition of the process cost and whether it will be held again, while it is unknown. According to the representative of Vladimir Patrikeev's plant, the decision to restore on the Lzos copies of the rim is not accepted.
In 350 million rubles spent. It was not only the surveillance of the mirror, the director of the Observatory Valery Vlasyuk clarifies. The complex of work also included the transportation of the mirror for the restoration and back to BTA, the modernization of the polishing machine and the thermocontrol system of the room at the Lzos, the repair of the BTA crane, with which the mirrors are rearranged, updating the technical premises of the telescope and the creation of a mirror cooling system from scratch.
"All these improvements remain with us and reduce the cost of further work," says Mr. Vlasyuk. "But so far the state has no money to continue the work on the mirror. At the beginning of the zero SAO RAS wrote the letters to all the strong world of this, all oligarchs with a request to help update BTA. And now we are also ready to ask for help from readers "Kommersant" to still get a mirror with improved characteristics. "
Julia Bychkov, Nizhny Arkhyz
