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A telescope the size of a city block opens its eyes
The first images from a new survey telescope in the Andes show galaxies in more detail than any wide-field instrument before it.
Science correspondent
6 min read
The observatory dome at dusk, shortly before the first-light observation.
The first image took 30 seconds to capture and three days to process. It shows a patch of sky smaller than the full moon containing more than 10,000 galaxies.
Over the next ten years, the telescope will photograph the entire southern sky every few nights.
A movie of the universe
Instead of studying individual objects, the telescope will record how the sky changes: exploding stars, passing asteroids, galaxies that brighten and fade.
“We are not taking a picture. We are making a film,” an astronomer on the project said.
The data, about 20 terabytes a night, will be released to researchers worldwide.
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Leo Hartmann
Science correspondent
Leo writes about research, researchers and the long road from lab to headline.
