Today, humanity is reaching towards the stars and telescopes have a huge role in this quest. Telescopes are becoming better and better and, as the years go by, they help scientists to make monumental discoveries. Here are the 10 most amazing telescopes in the world:
1. European Extremely Large Telescope
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With an estimated cost of 1, 17 billion, this is the most expensive telescope ever designed and will be ready in 2018. This telescope will be able to help astronomers make amazing discoveries, find entirely new solar systems and even discover the secrets behind the birth of the Universe.
2. Thirty Meter Telescope
The name of this telescope comes from the 30 meters light collecting surface, making this amazing telescope, built with the help of Intel co-founder Gordon Moore (photo). It is believed that this telescope, which will be ready in 2016, will have 12 times the resolution of the world-known Hubble, and 8 times more powerful than the telescopes which are currently functioning.
3. Giant Magellan Telescope
This is one of the greatest telescopes in the world and it is composed of 8 mirrors that capture amazing images, reducing the atmospheric distortion, which affects the image quality of so many other telescopes, to zero. It cost 500 million dollars and is based in Chile.
4. Chandra X Ray Observatory
Chandra is the most advanced X-ray telescope in the world and is ultra-sensitive, being able to record even the smallest particles, as they disappear into black holes.
Famous Hubble could not miss from this list! Following a concept which was invented by N. Cassegrain in 1672, and criticized by Newton for its design, Hubble is now up in the sky, orbiting the Earth as a satellite- telescope. Over the years, it helped scientists to make great discoveries, such as the dark matter.
6. Large Binocular Telescope
Standing in Arizona, this huge two-part telescope is said to be the most powerful in the world. It is built upon a totally innovative concept. When it will become fully operational the astronomers believe that this system will allow them to discover many more stars, far beyond our own galaxy.
7. Very Large Telescope
The very large telescope is occupying a leveled mountain, in Chile. It is formed by a system of 4 telescopes, of which one is the main telescope, said to be able to capture 4 billion times fainter stars than we are able to see and is backed up by the other three smaller telescopes, for even more powerful perception.
8. Great Canary Telescope
Great Canary Telescope is located in the island with the same name, on mount La Palma. It cost $180,000 to build but it certainly does the job it was designed to do and , what’s more, it is supposed to be the largest telescope in the world.
9. Keck observatory
This observatory is located on top of Mauna Kea, in Hawaii, at an altitude of 4,267 meters. The two amazing telescopes that help astronomers understand better the many mysteries of the space have 300 tons each and are 8-story tall.
10. Southern African Large Telescope
The size of its mirror, which is the more important element of a telescope, makes the Southern African telescope one of the greatest in the world. SALT is able to see not only far away galaxies, but even quasars (huge black holes) in places where humans will probably never go. It may “see” stars one billion times better than we can.