Scientists on Friday began throwing one of the largest telescopic mirrors ever made on Earth for the giant Magellan telescope built in Chile.
Why does it matter: The giant telescope is designed to one day look at the atmospheres of potentially habitable planets around distant stars, learn more about early galaxies, and study other objects of interest.
What happens: The mirror is made in Arizona using the only spinning oven in the world designed for this type of casting.
- On Saturday, the oven will hit the “big fire”, rotating at five rotations per minute and heating the glass to 2,129 degrees Fahrenheit for about five hours to liquidate it.
- After that heating peak, the glass will gradually cool for about a month, while the oven rotates more slowly, eventually reaching room temperature. about 2.5 months after a heavy fire.
- “Once cooled, the mirror will be polished for two years before reaching an optical surface accuracy of less than one-thousandth the width of a human hair or five times smaller than a single coronavirus particle,” the organization wrote. GMT in a press release.
What’s next: The first two GMT mirrors are ready and stored, with three more still in the process. The seventh – and the last one – the mirror is scheduled to be distributed in 2023.
- The team behind the telescope also plans to create an eighth mirror as a backup.
- The telescope is expected to see its first light in 2029.