VANCOUVER: The Giant Magellan Telescope Corporation announced that it has entered its construction phase, having collected guarantees of more than $500 million in contributions from its 11 international partners.
The GMT, whose seven large mirrors are being cast and polished at the University of Arizona’s Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab, will operate from a site in the Andean foothills of Chile at Las Campanas Observatory. Its completion is targeted for 2021.
“I’m happy that we’ve reached this important milestone,” said Buell Jannuzi, director of Steward Observatory and the UA Department of Astronomy.
The UA has committed $60 million to the project and has already transferred $34 million, including a $20 million gift from Richard F. Caris, Jannuzi said. It hopes to eventually double its commitment, he said.
It has cast three of the giant telescope’s seven mirrors, which will combine to form a single light-gathering surface, equivalent to a mirror more than 80 feet around.
The UA’s partners are the Brazilian state of Sao Pãolo, national institutions in Australia and Korea, the Australian National University, the Carnegie Institution for Science, Harvard University, the Smithsonian Institution, Texas A&M University, the University of Chicago and the University of Texas at Austin.
The GMT is one of three large telescopes planned for the coming decade.
An international group led by California universities is building the Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii.
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