Researchers and engineers have built a huge telescope on the Lower Rhine that will provide a glimpse of the birth of the first galaxies after the Big Bang. After eight years of development, the high-tech telescope is now transported to Chile by ship. It is the second highest telescope in the world!
Researchers in the Atacama Desert will use the telescope at an altitude of 5,600 meters. This will make it the second tallest telescope in the world, says project engineer Ron Higgins of the University of Cologne.
The telescope is intended to display regions of space from which no visible light enters the Earth. The centerpiece is two mirrors of six meters high. With their help, scientists want to display radiation in the so-called submillimeter wavelength range.
Photos of the telescope expansion were shared on the X platform:
Hoping for new insights into the time after the Big Bang
For example, the submillimeter radiation comes from dust and molecular clouds surrounding distant black holes and star-rich galaxies, explains Dominik Riechers, professor of astrophysics at the University of Cologne, who scientifically supports the project. The researchers involved hope to observe the oldest light in the universe and thus provide crucial information about the Big Bang.
Only a few telescopes in the world can observe such wavelength ranges. For the observations to be successful, the telescope needs a very high and very dry location, Riechers said. The conditions on the mountain Cerro Chajnantor in Chile are ideal.
The working conditions at an altitude of 5,600 meters are difficult
The Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope (FYST) was planned by an international consortium involving the universities of Cologne and Bonn. It was built by a company in Duisburg.
The device, which is as high as a three-storey house, was recently set up for testing in Xanten on the Lower Rhine. “The effort involved was enormous,” says project manager Klaus Willmeroth. However, working conditions in Chile at an altitude of 5,600 meters are extremely difficult. Therefore, it was important to identify and correct potential problems in Germany in advance.
The telescope is expected to arrive in Chile in March. The parts are then transported by truck along a winding dirt road to their final location in the desert. The first images from the depths of space should be available in late 2025 or early 2026.
Source: Krone
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