Science News
Largest optical telescope thrills astronomers with first images
By DPA
Oct 26, 2005, 12:00 GMT

Tucson, Arizona - The world's most powerful optical telescope has delivered its first pictures, peering 24 million light years into space at a spiral galaxy in the Andromeda constellation and thrilling scientists with what is yet to come.

The Large Binocular Telescope in the U.S. state of Arizona took the images of the galaxy that looks much like the ubiquitous flying saucers of science fiction with one of its two 8.4-metre-wide, 16-ton mirrors, technical director John Hill said Wednesday in Tucson, Arizona.

He said that when he and seven other scientists looked at the images for the first time after they were taken two weeks ago, they were struck by their sharpness, adding that he believed the 120-million-dollar telescope would be taking sharper images than the Hubble space telescope three years down the road.

'We are ecstatic,' Hill said. 'We have worked toward this moment for 20 years.'

The telescope, also known as the LBT, is so strong that not only will it be able to see billions of light years from Earth but it could also see the flame of a candle burning at 2.5 million kilometres.

'The first LBT pictures already foreshadow what scientists can expect in the near-future in the way of fascinating image quality,' said Gerd Weigelt, the director of the Max Planck Institute of Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, which is participating in the LBT project.

Two other participating German scientists were equally impressed. 'The LBT will open entirely new possibilities for us in the exploration of planets outside our solar system,' said Thomas Henning and Tom Herbst with the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg.

The Large Binocular Telescope - a joint project of American, German and Italian universities, observatories and research institutes - was dedicated in October 2004 at its site on Mount Graham, 3,190 metres above sea level, after eight years of construction.

German scientists developed the instruments, Italians the cameras and the Americans the hardware and software. Now astronomers from all three countries will man it.

On the Internet: Official Site