Giant Magellan Telescope passes design and construction reviews

The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) project has passed two major expert reviews over its design and construction. This clears the way for the project to proceed towards construction approval.

The GMT is a consortium between Astronomy Australia, The Australian National University, Carnegie Institution for Science, Harvard University, Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, Smithsonian Institution, Texas A&M University, The University of Arizona, The University of Chicago and The University of Texas at Austin. When completed, the 25 m telescope will have more than six times the collecting area of the largest telescopes today and 10 times the resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope.

The GMT will provide clear images of planets around other stars and the most distant galaxies in the universe. This will allow scientists to explore distant and potentially habitable planets; to explore the universe in the first billion years after the Big Bang; and to probe the mysteries of dark matter, dark energy and massive black holes.

“The GMT will show us how the universe works: from testing whether planets around nearby stars harbour life to moving out the edge of knowledge to examine the first stars and galaxies,” said Harvard astronomer Robert Kirshner.

During a week-long review in January, an international panel of experts examined the design of the giant telescope, its complex optical systems and its precision scientific instruments. Their conclusion was that the project meets the technical readiness required to proceed to construction. A team of construction experts then endorsed the project’s cost estimate and management plan.

According to Richard Kurz, former project manager for the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and chair of the panel, it was recommended that the project “proceed as rapidly as possible to construction”. Production of three of the GMT’s seven primary mirror segments is already underway, and work on the fourth mirror will begin in January 2015.

“These reviews are critical milestones required by the GMTO [Giant Magellan Telescope Organisation] Board to proceed with the construction phase,” said Dr Wendy Freedman, chair of the GMTO board of directors and director of the Carnegie Observatories. “I am delighted with the very positive results of the design and the cost reviews.”

Board members representing the partner research institutions that make up the GMT consortium will meet mid-year to review the construction plan. According to Matthew Colless, vice chair of the GMT board and director of the ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, construction is hoped to begin later this year.

The GMT will be built and located at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, where the mountaintop construction site has already been levelled. It is due to be operating by 2020.