The biggest eye in the world
From the moons of Jupiter in the solar system to the first stars of the universe, the Extremely Large Telescope will reveal the cosmos in unprecedented detail.
Since Galileo Galilei aimed his telescope, which was only a few centimeters wide, into the night sky at the beginning of the 17th century, more and more precise and sophisticated systems have made it possible to look deeper into the universe. In the early 20th century, observations with the 2.5-meter telescope at Mount Wilson Observatory provided the distance of numerous galaxies. Since then it has been clear that the cosmos is expanding. In the late 1950s, the 5-meter telescope on Mount Palomar helped discover quasars, those active galactic nuclei that appear almost point-like and allow us to explore the vastness of observable space with their immense luminosity. The Very Large Telescope (VLT), built in Chile, provided the first image of a planet outside our solar system in 2004 thanks to its 8.2 meter mirrors.
These are just a few examples of the far-reaching results of observational astronomy. Each new generation of telescopes has changed our view of the universe. Therefore, two decades ago, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) started planning the largest optical telescope in history: the Extremely Large Telescope, ELT for short …
Erratum
Unfortunately, an error has crept in: Of course, it has not yet been possible to determine the fine structure constant to the ten millionth decimal place, but with a precision of one to ten million.
