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The 8.4-meter mirror joins five of the world’s largest mirrors previously cast for the Giant Magellan Telescope, one of the world’s largest and most anticipated extremely large telescopes.

PASADENA, CA — The Giant Magellan Telescope announces fabrication of the sixth of seven of the world’s largest monolithic mirrors. These mirrors will allow astronomers to see farther into the universe with more detail than any other optical telescope before. The sixth 8.4-meter (27.5 feet) mirror — about two stories high when standing on edge — is being fabricated at the University of Arizona’s Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab and will take nearly four years to complete. The mirror casting is considered a marvel of modern engineering and is usually celebrated with a large in-person event with attendees from all over the world. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, work on the sixth mirror began behind closed doors to protect the health of the 10-person mirror casting team at the lab.

The Giant Magellan Telescope has seven primary mirrors arranged in a flower pattern array. The mirrors are the largest in the world. Credit: Giant Magellan Telescope – GMTO Corporation.

“The most important part of a telescope is its light-collecting mirror,” said James Fanson, Project Manager of the Giant Magellan Telescope. “The larger the mirror, the deeper we can see into the universe and the more detail we can observe. The Giant Magellan Telescope’s unique primary mirror design consists of seven of the world’s largest mirrors. Casting the sixth mirror is a major step toward completion. Once operational, the Giant Magellan Telescope will produce images ten times sharper than the Hubble Space Telescope. The discoveries these mirrors will make will transform our understanding of the universe.”

The process of casting the giant mirror at Arizona’s Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab involves melting nearly 20 tons (38,490 pounds) of high-purity, low-expansion, borosilicate glass (called E6 glass) into the world’s only spinning furnace designed to cast giant mirrors for telescopes. At the peak of the melting process, the furnace spins at five revolutions per minute, heating the glass to 1,165 degrees Celsius (2,129 F) for approximately five hours until it liquefies into the mold. The peak temperature event is called “high fire” and will occur on March 6, 2021. The mirror then enters a one month annealing process where the glass is cooled while the furnace spins at a slower rate in order to remove internal stresses and toughen the glass. It takes another 1.5 months to cool to room temperature. This “spin cast” process gives the mirror surface its special parabolic shape. Once cooled, the mirror will be polished for two years before reaching an optical surface precision of less than one thousandth of the width of a human hair or five times smaller than a single coronavirus particle.

This timelapse shows several stages of the mirror casting process for segment five, including creating the light-weighted mirror mold, loading nearly 20 tons of glass into the mold, and the furnace spinning during “high fire.” Credit: Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab, The University of Arizona and the Giant Magellan Telescope – GMTO Corporation.

“I am tremendously proud of how the operations of the mirror lab have adapted to the pandemic, allowing our talented and dedicated members of the Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab to safely continue to produce the mirrors for the Giant Magellan Telescope,” said Buell Jannuzi, Director of Steward Observatory and Head of the Department of Astronomy at the University of Arizona.

With the first two giant mirrors completed and in storage in Tucson, Arizona, the sixth mirror joins three others in various stages of production at the mirror lab. The third mirror’s front surface polishing has achieved 70 nanometer accuracy and is less than one year from completion. The fourth mirror has completed rear surface polishing, and load spreaders are being attached to allow the mirror to be manipulated during operation. The fifth mirror was cast in November 2017, and the seventh mirror is expected to be cast in 2023. In addition, an eighth spare mirror is planned to be made that can be swapped in when another mirror requires maintenance.

In the late 2020s, the giant mirrors will be transported more than 8,100 kilometers (5,000 miles) to the Giant Magellan Telescope’s future home in the Chilean Atacama Desert at Las Campanas Observatory more than 2,500 meters (8,200 feet) above sea level. The site is known for being one of the best astronomical sites on the planet, with its clear skies, low light pollution, and stable airflow producing exceptionally sharp images. Additionally, the site’s southern hemisphere location gives the extremely large telescope access to the center of the Milky Way, which is of interest for many reasons, including the fact that it is the home to the nearest supermassive black hole, as well as many of the most interesting nearby galaxies. The southern hemisphere is also home to some of the most powerful observatories working at other wavelengths, making it the ideal location for synergistic scientific observations.

This video shows the Giant Magellan Telescope’s construction site on July 02, 2019 during the morning of the solar eclipse. Credit: Giant Magellan Telescope – GMTO Corporation.

Once the Giant Magellan Telescope becomes fully operational, its seven mirror-array will have a total light collecting area of 368 square meters (3,961 square feet) — enough to see the torch engraved on a dime from nearly 160 kilometers (100 miles) away. Such viewing power is ten times greater than the famed Hubble Space Telescope and four times greater than the highly anticipated James Webb Space Telescope, expected to launch in late 2021. The mirrors are also a crucial part of the optical design that allows the Giant Magellan Telescope to have the widest field of view of any extremely large telescope (ELT) in the 30-meter class. The unique optical design will make the Giant Magellan Telescope the most optically efficient ELT when it comes to making use of every photon of light that the mirrors collect — only two reflections are required to direct light to the wide field instruments and only three reflections to provide light to the instruments that use small fields of view and the highest possible spatial resolutions.

“This unprecedented combination of light gathering power, efficiency, and image resolution will enable us to make new discoveries across all fields of astronomy, particularly fields that require the highest spatial and spectral resolutions, like the search for other Earths,” said Rebecca Bernstein, Chief Scientist of the Giant Magellan Telescope. “We will have unique capabilities for studying planets at high resolution, which is the key to understanding if a planet has a rocky composition like our Earth, if it contains liquid water, and if its atmosphere contains the right combination of molecules to signal the presence of life.”

The Giant Magellan Telescope project is the work of a distinguished international consortium of leading universities and science institutions. For more about the Giant Magellan Telescope, visit gmto.org.

###

Media Contact
Ryan Kallabis
Director of Communications
rkallabis@gmto.org
(626) 204-0554

Multimedia Resources
Multimedia from the release and media usage statement are available from the GMTO Corporation here and from the University of Arizona here until March 20, 2021. Assets may not appear uncredited. Unless otherwise noted in media usage statement, credit line must be given as follows: Giant Magellan Telescope – GMTO Corporation.

The 8.4-meter mirror joins five of the world’s largest mirrors previously cast for the Giant Magellan Telescope, one of the world’s largest and most anticipated extremely large telescopes.

PASADENA, CA — The Giant Magellan Telescope announces fabrication of the sixth of seven of the world’s largest monolithic mirrors. These mirrors will allow astronomers to see farther into the universe with more detail than any other optical telescope before. The sixth 8.4-meter (27.5 feet) mirror — about two stories high when standing on edge — is being fabricated at the University of Arizona’s Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab and will take nearly four years to complete. The mirror casting is considered a marvel of modern engineering and is usually celebrated with a large in-person event with attendees from all over the world. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, work on the sixth mirror began behind closed doors to protect the health of the 10-person mirror casting team at the lab.

The GMT Science Requirements for the telescope and associated instruments and facilities flow from the scientific priorities listed in the GMT Science Book. These requirements are used to optimize the telescope design and development process, and to define the goals and requirements for the GMT first generation instruments.

This timelapse shows several stages of the mirror casting process for segment five, including creating the light-weighted mirror mold, loading nearly 20 tons of glass into the mold, and the furnace spinning during “high fire.” Credit: Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab, The University of Arizona and the Giant Magellan Telescope – GMTO Corporation. The Giant Magellan Telescope’s primary mirror segment five during reveal. Credit: Damien Jemison, Giant Magellan Telescope – GMTO Corporation. The Giant Magellan Telescope’s primary mirrors are fabricated with high-purity, low-expansion, borosilicate glass (called E6 glass) from the Ohara Corporation of Japan. Credit: Damien Jemison, Giant Magellan Telescope – GMTO Corporation.

“The most important part of a telescope is its light-collecting mirror,” said James Fanson, Project Manager of the Giant Magellan Telescope. “The larger the mirror, the deeper we can see into the universe and the more detail we can observe. The Giant Magellan Telescope’s unique primary mirror design consists of seven of the world’s largest mirrors. Casting the sixth mirror is a major step toward completion. Once operational, the Giant Magellan Telescope will produce images ten times sharper than the Hubble Space Telescope. The discoveries these mirrors will make will transform our understanding of the universe.”

The process of casting the giant mirror at Arizona’s Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab involves melting nearly 20 tons (38,490 pounds) of high-purity, low-expansion, borosilicate glass (called E6 glass) into the world’s only spinning furnace designed to cast giant mirrors for telescopes. At the peak of the melting process, the furnace spins at five revolutions per minute, heating the glass to 1,165 degrees Celsius (2,129 F) for approximately five hours until it liquefies into the mold. The peak temperature event is called “high fire” and will occur on March 6, 2021. The mirror then enters a one month annealing process where the glass is cooled while the furnace spins at a slower rate in order to remove internal stresses and toughen the glass. It takes another 1.5 months to cool to room temperature. This “spin cast” process gives the mirror surface its special parabolic shape. Once cooled, the mirror will be polished for two years before reaching an optical surface precision of less than one thousandth of the width of a human hair or five times smaller than a single coronavirus particle.

This timelapse shows several stages of the mirror casting process for segment five, including creating the light-weighted mirror mold, loading nearly 20 tons of glass into the mold, and the furnace spinning during “high fire.” Credit: Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab, The University of Arizona and the Giant Magellan Telescope – GMTO Corporation.

“I am tremendously proud of how the operations of the mirror lab have adapted to the pandemic, allowing our talented and dedicated members of the Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab to safely continue to produce the mirrors for the Giant Magellan Telescope,” said Buell Jannuzi, Director of Steward Observatory and Head of the Department of Astronomy at the University of Arizona.

With the first two giant mirrors completed and in storage in Tucson, Arizona, the sixth mirror joins three others in various stages of production at the mirror lab. The third mirror’s front surface polishing has achieved 70 nanometer accuracy and is less than one year from completion. The fourth mirror has completed rear surface polishing, and load spreaders are being attached to allow the mirror to be manipulated during operation. The fifth mirror was cast in November 2017, and the seventh mirror is expected to be cast in 2023. In addition, an eighth spare mirror is planned to be made that can be swapped in when another mirror requires maintenance.

In the late 2020s, the giant mirrors will be transported more than 8,100 kilometers (5,000 miles) to the Giant Magellan Telescope’s future home in the Chilean Atacama Desert at Las Campanas Observatory more than 2,500 meters (8,200 feet) above sea level. The site is known for being one of the best astronomical sites on the planet, with its clear skies, low light pollution, and stable airflow producing exceptionally sharp images. Additionally, the site’s southern hemisphere location gives the extremely large telescope access to the center of the Milky Way, which is of interest for many reasons, including the fact that it is the home to the nearest supermassive black hole, as well as many of the most interesting nearby galaxies. The southern hemisphere is also home to some of the most powerful observatories working at other wavelengths, making it the ideal location for synergistic scientific observations.

This video shows the Giant Magellan Telescope’s construction site on July 02, 2019 during the morning of the solar eclipse. Credit: Giant Magellan Telescope – GMTO Corporation.

Once the Giant Magellan Telescope becomes fully operational, its seven mirror-array will have a total light collecting area of 368 square meters (3,961 square feet) — enough to see the torch engraved on a dime from nearly 160 kilometers (100 miles) away. Such viewing power is ten times greater than the famed Hubble Space Telescope and four times greater than the highly anticipated James Webb Space Telescope, expected to launch in late 2021. The mirrors are also a crucial part of the optical design that allows the Giant Magellan Telescope to have the widest field of view of any extremely large telescope (ELT) in the 30-meter class. The unique optical design will make the Giant Magellan Telescope the most optically efficient ELT when it comes to making use of every photon of light that the mirrors collect — only two reflections are required to direct light to the wide field instruments and only three reflections to provide light to the instruments that use small fields of view and the highest possible spatial resolutions.

“This unprecedented combination of light gathering power, efficiency, and image resolution will enable us to make new discoveries across all fields of astronomy, particularly fields that require the highest spatial and spectral resolutions, like the search for other Earths,” said Rebecca Bernstein, Chief Scientist of the Giant Magellan Telescope. “We will have unique capabilities for studying planets at high resolution, which is the key to understanding if a planet has a rocky composition like our Earth, if it contains liquid water, and if its atmosphere contains the right combination of molecules to signal the presence of life.”

The Giant Magellan Telescope project is the work of a distinguished international consortium of leading universities and science institutions. For more about the Giant Magellan Telescope, visit gmto.org.

Media Contact Ryan Kallabis Director of Communications rkallabis@gmto.org (626) 204-0554

Puedes ir directo al tema que te interesa en los siguientes enlaces:

• • El 2020 para GMTO
  • Novedades sobre el sitio de construcción
  • Subvención del la NSF acelera el desarrollo del telescopio
  • ¿Sabías que…?
  • Positiva evaluación del pionero sistema antisísmico
  • Avances en los prototipos de los Espejos Secundarios Adaptativos
  • GMTO en SPIE 2020
  • Participa junto a GMTO en la AAS 2020

El 2020 para GMTO

El 2020 fue un año de progresos y desafíos para el Telescopio Magallanes Gigante.

Comenzamos el año formando parte de la sesión informativa sobre el Programa del Telescopio Extremadamente Grande de los Estados Unidos (US-ELTP, por su sigla en inglés) ante la Sociedad Astronómica Americana (AAS). Este programa busca otorgar a la comunidad científica estadounidense un amplio acceso al Telescopio Magallanes Gigante mediante la participación del gobierno de los Estados Unidos. La respuesta de la comunidad científica fue muy positiva.

Más tarde participamos en una sesión informativa ante el Panel de Observaciones Ópticas e Infrarrojas desde la Tierra, de la Encuesta Decenal de los Estados Unido. La Encuesta Decenal establecerá las prioridades científicas del gobierno de los Estados Unidos durante los próximos diez años. Nuestro informe fue bien recibido por el Panel e incluso fue reseñado por The New York Times.

Luego irrumpió la pandemia del coronavirus, que transformó nuestras vidas y nos obligó a trabajar de un modo muy diferente. GMTO Corporation respondió rápidamente cerrando las oficinas de Pasadena y Santiago, y el sitio de construcción en Chile, facilitando la transición de nuestros empleados al teletrabajo desde casa. Con el tiempo, tanto nosotros como nuestros proveedores, pudimos retomar el trabajo presencial en nuestros laboratorios de manera segura y, antes de finalizar el año, la construcción se pudo reanudar en Las Campanas. Si bien nuestro cronograma se ha visto afectado, hemos seguido logrando excelentes avances.

GMTO Corporation se subadjudicó una subvención de la National Science Foundation (NSF) de los Estados Unidos por una propuesta presentada en 2019 para probar tecnologías pioneras de óptica activa y adaptativa para el Telescopio Magallanes Gigante. Este fondo permitirá contar con dos bases de pruebas de la fase óptica, una base de pruebas del sistema de control del espejo primario en tamaño real, así como la fabricación y prueba de elementos claves del primer espejo secundario adaptativo fuera del eje. Este año también presentamos una propuesta adicional a la NSF para preparar a la Corporación GMTO para cumplir con los requerimientos de la NSF, con miras a una posible participación del gobierno de los Estados Unidos en el Telescopio Magallanes Gigante.

La producción de espejos en el Laboratorio Richard F. Caris de la Universidad de Arizona continúa a buen ritmo. El pulido de la superficie frontal del segmento #3 ha logrado una precisión de 200 nanómetros y está a menos de un año de su finalización. Se completó el pulido de la superficie trasera del segmento #5 y los preparativos para fundir espejo #6 a comienzos del próximo año, están muy avanzados. Nuestro contratista de estructuras de telescopios está próximo a la revisión preliminar del diseño, en tanto que otros subsistemas del telescopio se encuentran en etapas preliminares o finales de diseño.

Esperamos el 2021 con determinación y optimismo para seguir avanzando en el diseño y la construcción del Telescopio Magallanes Gigante.

– Dr. Miguel Roth, Vicepresidente de GMTO y Representante Legal en Chile

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Novedades sobre el sitio de construcción

Un trabajador de la construcción del Telescopio Magallanes Gigante con su equipo de seguridad y su máscara, frente al Observatorio Las Campanas en el desierto de Atacama, Chile.

A mediados de marzo, la mayoría de nuestro equipo dejó el sitio de construcción del GMT en el Observatorio Las Campanas en Chile, como medida de seguridad frente a la pandemia de COVID-19. Un equipo reducido permaneció en el sitio para realizar el mantenimiento esencial y salvaguardar nuestra infraestructura.

A fines de octubre, hubo un terremoto de magnitud 5,8 con epicentro cercano nuestro sitio, a unos 20 km al oeste y 60 km de profundidad. Inmediatamente realizamos una inspección detallada de nuestra infraestructura, caminos y equipos, de acuerdo con nuestros protocolos de seguridad. También hicimos mediciones en la cumbre para verificar si se habían producido desplazamientos del terreno. Afortunadamente, no hubo hallazgos ni ningún tipo de daños que reportar.

Después de una ausencia de 33 semanas, un contingente reducido recibe capacitación de seguridad contra el coronavirus antes de regresar al sitio de construcción. Siguiendo las regulaciones locales, los trabajadores se sientan a más de 1,5 metros de distancia entre sí en los asientos designados.

A comienzos de noviembre, después de cientos de horas de planificación y preparación para un retorno seguro al trabajo en el sitio del telescopio, nuestro equipo regresó con la misión de terminar el proyecto de infraestructura para la distribución de agua y servicios básicos. A la llegada del equipo al sitio, se realizaron sesiones informativas sobre las nuevas medidas de prevención ante el COVID-19, tanto en las operaciones en el sitio como los protocolos aplicados en la residencia. Durante nuestra primera semana de regreso, 45 personas estuvieron en el sitio, incluidos empleados de GMTO, contratistas y personal de servicios generales. La ocupación del sitio no superó el 20% de su capacidad.

Nuestro comedor fue reorganizado para permitir la trazabilidad de los contactos. Hemos reducido la capacidad máxima de 150 comensales a 40, utilizando mesas de 6 personas con un máximo de 2. Las comidas se realizan en turnos, con intervalos de 15 minutos de sanitización entre un turno y otro, además de la instalación de paneles divisorios en cada mesa. El alojamiento en las habitaciones ha pasado de uso compartido a uso individual y nuestras zonas de recreación (gimnasio, mesa de billar, TV) permanecen cerradas. Implementamos barreras de seguridad en las áreas del sitio donde ha sido necesario para garantizar la seguridad de los trabajos de construcción. Además, para permitir la trazabilidad de los contactos, el equipo se ha organizado en células de trabajo: grupos que trabajan juntos, comparten transporte y comparten turnos de comidas.

– Francisco Figueroa, Gerente de Construcción en el Sitio (Chile)

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Subvención de la NSF acelera el desarrollo del telescopio

En septiembre, el Telescopio Magallanes Gigante se subadjudicó una subvención de la National Science Foundation (NSF) de los Estados Unidos por 17,5 millones de dólares, para acelerar la creación de prototipos y las pruebas de algunas de las tecnologías ópticas e infrarrojas más potentes jamás diseñadas. La subvención refuerza tres avances cruciales y elimina los riesgos:

1. La construcción de dos bases de prueba para la alineación y puesta en fase, permitirá a los ingenieros demostrar, en un entorno controlado de laboratorio, que sus diseños centrales funcionarán para alinear y sincronizar los siete segmentos de espejo del telescopio, con la precisión requerida para lograr imágenes de difracción limitada con la primera luz en 2029.
2. Un prototipo a gran escala del sistema de control y soporte del espejo primario que realiza el control óptico activo.
3. La construcción parcial y prueba de un espejo secundario adaptable (ASM, por su sigla en inglés) de última generación, que se utiliza para realizar poner en fase el espejo primario y corregir la distorsión atmosférica.

“Nuestros siete espejos secundarios adaptativos llevan esta tecnología [óptica adaptativa] a un nivel superior”, dijo el Dr. James Fanson, Gerente de Proyecto del Telescopio Magallanes Gigante. “Nadie ha intentado utilizar siete ASM hasta ahora. Probablemente ésta sea la tecnología más avanzada que tenemos en el Telescopio Magallanes Gigante y su éxito es una prioridad absoluta. Necesitamos probar y validar su desempeño al principio del proyecto”.

Las bases de pruebas se desarrollarán en el Centro de Óptica Adaptativa Astronómica (CAAO) de la Universidad de Arizona y en el Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO), mientras que las pruebas de los actuadores y la integración del soporte del espejo primario se desarrollarán en la Universidad de Texas A&M. Los espejos secundarios adaptativos se desarrollan por un contrato con AdOptica.

Esta subvención de la NSF posiciona al Telescopio Magallanes Gigante como uno de los primeros en la nueva generación de telescopios extremadamente grandes, lo que tendrán alrededor de tres veces el tamaño de cualquier telescopio óptico terrestre construido hasta la fecha y serán capaces de lograr una resolución diez veces mejor que la del Telescopio Espacial Hubble.

Ver noticia completa en inglés

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¿Sabías que…?

El Telescopio Magallanes Gigante es miembro del Programa del Telescopio Extremadamente Grande de los Estados Unidos (US-ELTP), una iniciativa conjunta con el Telescopio de Treinta Metros (TMT) y el Laboratorio Nacional de Investigación en Astronomía Óptica-Infrarroja (NOIRLab) de la NSF, para proporcionar acceso de primer nivel a la totalidad del cielo nocturno (hemisferios norte y sur). Una vez finalizados los telescopios, los científicos de los EE. UU. podrán aprovechar estos telescopios pioneros del programa para llevar a cabo una investigación transformadora que responda a algunas de las principales preguntas de la humanidad.

Ver más sobre el US-ELTP en inglés

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Pionero sistema antisísmico

En noviembre, un panel independiente de expertos de renombre internacional otorgó las mejores calificaciones al innovador sistema de protección sísmica del Telescopio Magallanes Gigante, capaz de proteger la estructura que pesa más de 6 mil toneladas, de daños causados por grandes terremotos. El innovador sistema no tiene precedentes en el campo de la astronomía, tanto por su inédito tamaño, como por su alta complejidad, y allanará el camino para la próxima generación en diseño de observatorios.

El Telescopio Magallanes Gigante se está construyendo en el Observatorio Las Campanas, en el desierto de Atacama en Chile, una de las mejores ubicaciones del planeta para observar el universo. Pero si bien esta remota región cuenta con más de 300 noches despejadas cada año, también es una de las regiones con mayor actividad sísmica del mundo. Los grandes terremotos en Chile pueden durar más de tres minutos y a menudo exceden los siete puntos en la escala de Richter.

El sistema de protección sísmica, o sistema de aislamiento sísmico, está diseñado para permanecer inactivo durante pequeños temblores “molestos”, comunes en el Observatorio Las Campanas. El sistema solo se activará durante terremotos de gran magnitud que superen los 5 puntos en la escala de Richter.
El sistema de aislamiento sísmico está ubicado debajo del pilar del telescopio y consta de dos líneas de defensa para la protección sísmica:

1. Soportes de péndulo de fricción (SFP), que aíslan el telescopio de los movimientos laterales del suelo durante un terremoto.
2. Sistema de recentrado del pilar, que puede devolver el telescopio y el pilar a la posición operativa normal después de un terremoto.

Al igual que los dispositivos sísmicos utilizados en puentes y otras estructuras grandes, los soportes SFP permiten que el pilar se mueva lateralmente con respecto a los cimientos, disipando energía y manteniendo el telescopio seguro. La matriz circular de 24 soportes tiene un rango de movimiento y un radio de curvatura de +/- 700 mm, lo que proporciona un período de movimiento lateral de cuatro segundos.
“La capacidad del pilar de moverse con respecto a los cimientos crea la necesidad asociada de llevar el telescopio a la posición ‘inicial’ después de un gran terremoto”, dijo el Dr. Bruce Bigelow Gerente del Sitio, Cúpula e Infraestructura del Telescopio Magallanes Gigante.
El sistema de monitoreo y recentrado del pilar (PRMS) utiliza un poderoso sistema hidráulico capaz de mover más de 6.200 toneladas métricas de telescopio y pilar (aproximadamente la mitad del peso del Puente de Brooklyn), para devolver el pilar a unos pocos milímetros de su posición operativa después de una gran terremoto.

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Prototipos de los Espejos Secundarios Adaptativos

Integración de la placa fría y el cuerpo de referencia (izquierda) y la base P72 aluminizada con los 72 imanes adheridos a su superficie posterior (derecha). (right)

El inmenso tamaño de los espejos primarios del Telescopio Magallanes Gigante requiere un poderoso sistema de óptica adaptativa para corregir los efectos causados por la atmósfera. El uso de los espejos secundarios adaptativos (ASM) permite recolectar la luz entrante y darle una forma opuesta a la distorsión introducida por la atmósfera, dando como resultado una imagen nítida.
“La incorporación de la tecnología de óptica adaptativa al Telescopio Magallanes Gigante permitirá a los astrónomos obtener imágenes de objetos aún más distantes gracias su capacidad para reducir al mínimo la distorsión atmosférica”, comenta Glenn Brossus, Subgerente de Proyecto del Telescopio Magallanes Gigante.

Diagrama de un segmento de espejo secundario adaptativo de GMT que muestra componentes clave como la superficie frontal adaptativa, el cuerpo de referencia rígido, los actuadores electromagnéticos, la placa fría y el posicionador del segmento con 6 grados de libertad.

En el núcleo de cada ASM hay 675 actuadores que pueden deformar o “adaptar” a la forma deseada la superficie frontal del espejo de 1.05 m de diámetro y 2 mm de espesor. Los actuadores están fijados a un cuerpo de referencia rígido y usan fuerza electromagnética para empujar y tirar de los imanes que están adheridos a la parte posterior de la superficie frontal del espejo. Esta capacidad de cambio de forma permite que los espejos se ajusten continuamente durante una exposición. Para corregir el error de fase óptica, cada segmento de espejo secundario moverá solo 4 kg de vidrio en lugar de un espejo primario de 17 toneladas, lo que simplifica enormemente el control general de la imagen del Telescopio Magallanes Gigante.

El progreso en los ASM del Telescopio Magallanes Gigante continua con el desarrollo del prototipo a escala. Se han recibido, ensamblado y probado componentes prototipo para la superficie frontal de 0,35 m de diámetro y 72 actuadores. La superficie frontal del prototipo ha sido recubierta con aluminio y tiene 72 imanes adheridos a la superficie posterior. Con la placa fría y el cuerpo de referencia integrados, los ingenieros del proyecto están listos para la siguiente etapa: pruebas de comportamiento óptico.

Más sobre Óptica Adaptativa en inglés

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GMTO en SPIE 2020



Este año, la conferencia SPIE 2020: Telescopios e Instrumentos Astronómicos inauguró un foro virtual del 14 al 18 de diciembre. El Dr. James Fanson, Gerente de Proyecto del Telescopio Magallanes Gigante, dio una charla sobre el estado de avance del proyecto. Varios ingenieros del proyecto enviaron trabajos y realizaron presentaciones.

Más sobre las presentaciones y trabajos (en inglés)

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Participa junto a GMTO en la AAS 2020

Participa junto al Telescopio Magallanes Gigante en la 237ª Reunión de la Sociedad Astronómica Americana (AAS), del 10 al 15 de enero de 2021. Asistiremos virtualmente en asociación con el Programa del Telescopios Extremadamente Grande de los Estados Unidos. ¡Busca el stand virtual del US-ELTP! El Dr. James Fanson, Gerente de Proyecto del Telescopio Magallanes Gigante también hablará durante una sesión especial sobre el US-ELTP, el 14 de enero de 2021.

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Virtual snow falls on a rendering of the Giant Magellan Telescope. Set this holiday edition as your new desktop art. Download it here

2020 in photos

2020 was a year of progress and challenge for the Giant Magellan Telescope. Here is our 2020 story told in photos. Click the image to see the caption.

For the latest progress on the Giant Magellan Telescope, take a look at our 2020 in review newsletter.

International review panel praises the Giant Magellan Telescope’s innovative seismic protection system capable of protecting the 13.6-million-pound telescope structure from earthquake damage in one of the world’s most seismically active regions.

PASADENA, CA — Engineers designing the Giant Magellan Telescope have solved an immense design challenge never attempted before: Protecting a 22-story rotating observatory and seven of the world’s largest monolithic mirrors from being damaged by earthquakes. The innovative seismic protection design earned top marks from an independent review panel of international experts in November, paving the way for the next generation in observatory design.

“The structures of the next generation of extremely large telescopes are so massive, their instruments so sensitive, and the seismic environments they are located in are so intense, that there’s really no way to avoid seismic protection. We need a seismic isolation system to keep the telescope operational,” said Dr. Bruce Bigelow, the Giant Magellan Telescope’s Site, Enclosure, and Facilities Manager.

The Giant Magellan Telescope is a new 30-meter class ground-based telescope being constructed at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile’s Atacama Desert, one of the best locations on Earth to view the universe. But while this remote region boasts more than 300 clear nights of the galactic center per year, it also is home to some of the biggest, the most frequent, and the most destructive Earthquakes ever recorded. Large earthquakes in Chile can last for more than three minutes and often exceed seven on the surface-wave magnitude scale (MS).

The Giant Magellan Telescope construction site at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, February 2020. Image credit: Giant Magellan Telescope – GMTO Corporation

“Telescopes that have been built in seismically active regions were designed, due to their smaller scale, without explicit seismic mitigation,” said Dr. Dave Ashby, the Giant Magellan Telescope’s Project Engineer. “While most remain operational today, some have incurred costly earthquake damage. The new generation of extremely large telescopes will be built with sophisticated seismic mitigations, including seismic isolation, to balance construction and operational costs over the extended operational service lives of these large facilities.”

The seismic protection system — also known as a seismic isolation system — on the Giant Magellan Telescope is unprecedented in the world of telescopes, in terms of the size and complexity. Unlike hospitals or large bridges, the seismic isolation system needs to not only protect the structures from collapse, but also to prevent the structure and fragile optical components inside from requiring repair. Because the Giant Magellan Telescope’s seismic isolation system serves as the telescope foundation, it must be very reliable. By design, the probability of seismic isolation failure is less than 0.5 percent over the 50-year service life of the observatory. The system is designed to remain inactive during small “nuisance” earthquakes that are common at Las Campanas Observatory. The system will only engage during earthquakes that exceed a magnitude of approximately 5 Ms and extreme earthquakes that will typically occur on a 1–2-year time scale.

The Giant Magellan Telescope’s seismic isolation system consists of two lines of defense that keep it safe and allow a return to operations within hours to weeks, depending on the magnitude of a seismic event.

1. Seismic Isolation System: A circular array of 24 single friction pendulum isolators that support the telescope and its pier and protect the telescope’s optical components and instruments from active ground motion caused by a major earthquake.
2. Pier Recentering System: A hydraulic system that can return the 6,200 metric ton telescope structure to its original resting and operational position following a major earthquake.

A circular array of 24 single friction pendulum isolators are located under the Giant Magellan Telescope’s pier that supports the telescope and protects optical components and instruments from active ground motion caused by major earthquakes. Image credit: Giant Magellan Telescope – GMTO Corporation

After a major earthquake, the friction pendulum isolators may not return the telescope exactly back to its normal operation position. “The isolation system will return the telescope to its ‘home’ position within a couple of inches, but that’s not good enough,” said Dr. Bigelow. “That’s where the hydraulics of the pier recentering system come in, which can move the 6,000 metric tons of telescope and pier and return the telescope to a fraction of an inch from where it was before the earthquake.”

After a major earthquake, the friction pendulum isolators may not return the telescope exactly back to its normal operation position. “The isolation system will return the telescope to its ‘home’ position within a couple of inches, but that’s not good enough,” said Dr. Bigelow. “That’s where the hydraulics of the pier recentering system come in, which can move the 6,000 metric tons of telescope and pier and return the telescope to a fraction of an inch from where it was before the earthquake.”

To validate this revolutionary design, engineers at the Giant Magellan Telescope exposed the design to an independent review panel of internationally renowned experts in seismic isolation systems, very large hydraulic positioning systems, and the formulation and placement of high-strength concrete. Reviewers reported that the preliminary designs have successfully met the seismic protection requirements that, as Dr. Bigelow said, are “absolutely crucial to assuring that the telescope can do its job for 50 years.”

For more information about the Giant Magellan Telescope, visit gmto.org

Media Contact Ryan Kallabis Director of Communications rkallabis@gmto.org (626) 204-0554 Multimedia Resources

Multimedia from the release are available here until January 8, 2021.

Assets may not appear uncredited. Credit line must be given as follows: Giant Magellan Telescope – GMTO Corporation.

Use the quicklinks below to navigate to the topics that interest you:

• 2020 in Review
• Updates From the Construction Site
• Major National Science Foundation Grant Accelerates Telescope Development
• Did You Know?
• Protecting the Telescope From Extreme Earthquakes
• Prototyping the Adaptive Secondary Mirrors
• Event Recap: SPIE 2020
• Join us at AAS 2020
• 2020 in the News
• Job Openings

2020 in Review

2020 was a year of progress and challenge for the Giant Magellan Telescope.

We began the year as part of the US Extremely Large Telescope Program briefing to the American Astronomical Society. This program seeks to provide broad US community access to the Giant Magellan Telescope through the involvement of the US government. The scientific community response was quite positive.

This was followed by a briefing to the US Decadal Survey Panel on Optical and Infrared Observations from the Ground. The Decadal Survey will establish the scientific priorities for the US government over the next ten years. Our briefing was well received by the Panel, and the event was reported by the New York Times.

Then came the coronavirus pandemic, which upended our lives and forced us into a very different mode of work. The GMTO Corporation responded swiftly to close our office in Pasadena and the construction site in Chile and transition our employees to teleworking from home. Over time our suppliers and we were able to continue necessary work in laboratories safely, and by the end of the year, construction had resumed at Las Campanas. While our schedule has been impacted somewhat, excellent progress continues to be made.

The GMTO Corporation was a subawardee of a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant from a proposal we submitted in 2019 for work including adaptive and active optics technologies needed by the Giant Magellan Telescope. This will produce two optical phasing testbeds, a full-scale primary mirror control system testbed, and fabrication and testing of key elements of the first off-axis adaptive secondary mirror. We submitted an additional proposal to the NSF this year to prepare the GMTO Corporation for further interaction with the NSF aimed at possible US government involvement in the Giant Magellan Telescope.

Mirror production at the Richard F. Caris Laboratory at the University of Arizona continues apace. Segment #3 front surface polishing has achieved 200 nanometer accuracy and is less than one year from completion. Segment #5 rear-surface processing was completed, and preparations are well advanced to cast Segment #6 early next year. Our telescope structure contractor is approaching preliminary design review, and other telescope subsystems are in preliminary or final design stages.

We look forward to 2021 with determination and optimism for continued progress with the design and construction of Giant Magellan Telescope.

– Dr. James Fanson, Project Manager

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Updates From the Construction Site

Giant Magellan Telescope construction worker wears safety gear and mask backdropped by Las Campanas Observatory in the Atacama Desert of Chile.

In mid-March, the majority of our team vacated the telescope site at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile as a safety precaution amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. A skeleton crew remained at the site to perform essential maintenance and safeguard our infrastructure.

In late October, there was a magnitude 5.8 earthquake with the epicenter not far from our site, about 20 km to the west and 60 km deep. Afterward, we conducted a detailed inspection of our infrastructure, roads, and equipment, in accordance with our safety protocols. We also took measurements at the summit to verify whether soil settlement occurred. Fortunately, there were no findings of any kind and no damages to report.

After a 33-week absence, a reduced workforce at the construction site receive coronavirus safety training before returning to work. Following local regulations, workers sit 6+ feet apart from one another in designated seating.

In early November, after hundreds of hours of dedicated planning and preparation for a safe return to work at the telescope site, our team remobilized with the intent to finish the Water and Utility Infrastructure distribution package. When the team arrived at the site, we conducted briefings on the new COVID-19 preventions in place, including facilities operations and residence protocols. During our first week back, 45 people were on site including GMTO Corporation employees, contractors, and general services personnel. Site occupancy is at roughly 20% capacity.

Our dining facilities have been reorganized to allow for contact traceability. We’ve downsized the maximum capacity of 150 diners to 40 diners, and of tables of 6 to tables of 2. Mealtimes now occur in shifts with 15-minute sanitation sweeps between shifts, and we’ve installed shielded dividers at each table setting. Room accommodations have transitioned from shared to individual use and our recreation facilities (gym, pool table, TV) remain closed. We’ve implemented safety barriers in the necessary areas at the site to conduct construction work. Additionally, to allow for contact traceability, the team has been organized into work cells – groups that work together, share transportation, and share meals shifts.

– Francisco Figueroa, Site Construction Manager (Chile)

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NSF Grant Accelerates Telescope Development

In September, the Giant Magellan Telescope received a $17.5 million National Science Foundation (NSF) to accelerate the prototyping and testing of some of the most powerful optical and infrared technologies ever engineered. The grant supports three crucial advancements and retires risk:

1. The build of two phasing testbeds will allow engineers to demonstrate, in a controlled laboratory setting, that its core designs will work to align and phase the telescope’s seven mirror segments with the required precision to achieve diffraction-limited imaging at first light in 2029
2. A full-scale prototype of the primary mirror support and control system that delivers active optical control
3. The partial build and testing of a next-generation Adaptive Secondary Mirror (ASM), which is used to perform the primary mirror phasing and atmospheric distortion correction.

“Our seven Adaptive Secondary Mirrors take [adaptive optics] technology to the next level,” said Dr. James Fanson, Project Manager of the Giant Magellan Telescope. “No one has attempted to use seven ASMs before the Giant Magellan Telescope. They are probably the most advanced tech we have on the telescope, and their success is a top priority. We need to test and validate their performance early on in the project.”

The testbeds will be developed at the University of Arizona Center for Astronomical Adaptive Optics (CAAO) and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO), while actuator testing and integration of the primary mirror support will be developed at Texas A&M University. The Adaptive Secondary Mirrors are developed in contract with AdOptica.

This NSF grant positions the Giant Magellan Telescope to be one of the first in a new generation of large telescopes, approximately three times the size of any ground-based optical telescope built to date and capable of achieving ten times better resolution than the Hubble Space Telescope.

Read the Press Release

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Did You Know?

The Giant Magellan Telescope is a member of the US Extremely Large Telescope Program (US-ELTP), a joint initiative with the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) and the NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab) to provide superior full-sky observing access (both Northern and Southern hemispheres). Upon completion of each telescope, scientists in the US will be able to take advantage of the program’s two pioneering telescopes to carry out transformational research that answers some of humanity’s most pressing questions.

Read About the US-ELTP

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Protection From
Extreme Earthquakes

In November, an independent review panel of internationally renowned experts gave top marks to the Giant Magellan Telescope’s innovative seismic protection system capable of protecting the 13.6-million-pound telescope structure from extreme earthquake damage. The innovative system is unprecedented in the world of telescopes in terms of size and complexity and will pave the way for the next generation in observatory design.

The Giant Magellan Telescope is being constructed at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile’s Atacama Desert, one of the best locations on Earth to view the universe. But while this remote region boasts more than 300 clear nights of the galactic center per year, it is also one of the world’s most seismically active regions. Large earthquakes in Chile can last for more than three minutes and often exceed seven on the surface-wave magnitude scale (Ms).

The seismic protection system — or seismic isolation system — is designed to remain inactive during small “nuisance” earthquakes common at Las Campanas Observatory. The system will only engage during extreme earthquakes that exceed a magnitude of approximately 5 Ms.

The seismic isolation system is located under the pier of the telescope and consists of two lines of defense for seismic protection:

1. Single friction pendulum (SFP) bearings, which isolate the telescope from lateral ground motions during an earthquake
2. Pier recentering system, which can return the telescope and pier to the normal operational position following an earthquake.

Similar to the seismic devices used in bridges and other large structures, the SFP bearings allow the pier to move laterally with respect to the foundations, dissipating energy and keeping the telescope safe. The circular array of 24 bearings have +/- 700mm of motion range and a radius of curvature, which provides a four-second period of lateral motion.

“The ability of the pier to move with respect to the foundations creates an associated need to bring the telescope back to ‘home’ position after a big earthquake,” said Dr. Bruce Bigelow, Site, Enclosure, and Facilities Manager of the Giant Magellan Telescope.

The pier recentering and monitoring system (PRMS) uses a powerful hydraulic system capable of moving over 6,200 metric tons of telescope and pier (roughly half the weight of the Brooklyn Bridge), to return the pier within a few millimeters of its operational position following a major earthquake.

Read the Press Release

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Prototyping the Secondary Mirrors

Cold-Plate and Reference Body integration (left) and coated P72 shell showing the 72 magnets bonded to its back surface (right)

The immense size of the Giant Magellan Telescope’s primary mirrors requires a powerful adaptive optics system to correct the blurring effects of the atmosphere. The use of the adaptive secondary mirrors (ASMs) allows us to collect incoming light and shape it with an error opposite to the measured atmospheric distortion, resulting in a blur-free image.

“The application of adaptive optics technology to Giant Magellan Telescope will provide future astronomers the ability to image even more distant objects due to the minimized atmospheric distortion effect,” shares Glenn Brossus, Assistant Project Manager for the Giant Magellan Telescope.

Exploded view of a GMT adaptive secondary mirror segment showing the key components which include the adaptive face sheet, rigid reference body, electromagnetic actuators, cold plate, and the 6- degrees of freedom segment positioner.

At the heart of each ASM are 675 actuators that can deform or “adapt” the 1.05m diameter, 2mm thick mirror face sheet to the desired shape. The actuators are fixed to a rigid reference body and use electromagnetic force to push and pull on the rare earth magnets that are bonded onto the back of the mirror face sheet. This shape-changing ability allows the mirrors to be continuously adjusted during an exposure. To correct the optical phase error, each secondary mirror segment will move just 4kg of glass rather than a 17-metric ton primary mirror, greatly simplifying overall image control of the Giant Magellan Telescope.

Progress continues on the Giant Magellan Telescope ASMs with the development of the subscale prototype. Prototype components for the 72 actuator 0.35m diameter face sheet have been received, assembled, and tested. The prototype face sheet has been coated with aluminum and has 72 magnets bonded to the back surface. With the cold plate and reference body integrated, project engineers are ready for the next stage: optical performance testing.

Learn About Adaptive Optics

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Event Recap: SPIE 2020



This year, SPIE 2020: Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation kicked off a virtual forum on December 14–18. Dr. James Fanson, Project Manager of the Giant Magellan Telescope, gave an invited talk on the project’s latest status. Additionally, many of the telescope’s project engineers submitted papers and presented.

View More Presentations & Papers

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Join us at AAS 2020

Join the Giant Magellan Telescope at the 237th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS), January 10–15, 2021. We’ll be virtually attending in partnership with the US Extremely Large Telescope Program — look for the US-ELTP Virtual Exhibit Booth! Dr. James Fanson, Project Manager of the Giant Magellan Telescope will also be speaking during a special splinter session on the US-ELTP on January 14, 2021 from 4:10–5:40pm.

Register Today

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2020 in the News

2020 was a big news year, here are a few of our top picks:

• Astronomy Magazine | Four new giant telescopes are about to rock astronomy
• CNN/Great Big Story | Building the world’s largest telescope
• Design World | EtherCAT and PC based control for giant telescope automation
• Forbes | A giant leap towards defeating astronomy’s greatest enemy: Earth’s atmosphere
• IndustryWeek | Engineers accomplish earthquake safety design
• NYT | American astronomy’s future goes on trial in Washington
• Optics & Photonics | A deeper view of the cosmos
• PhysicsWorld | Giant Magellan Telescope receives cash injection from the National Science Foundation
• Space.com | Giant Magellan Telescope snags $17.5 million grant to test advanced optics
• SPIE | Casting giants

For news in Spanish and from Chile, please see the Spanish version of our Newsletter.

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Job Opportunities

• Project Business Manager, open until filled
• Quality Assurance Officer, open until filled
• Telescope Structures Manager, open until filled

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Questions and inquires on how to support the Giant Magellan Telescope, please email us at connect@gmto.org

The GMT Science Case has evolved over the course of the project. It has been influenced by the 2010 Decadal Survey’s report “New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics” but has been updated to reflect new discoveries and scientific priorities. The 2018 version of the GMT Science Book is now available. The GMT Science Book focuses on those areas of frontier science best explored with a large aperture ground-based telescope. The book describes the transformative impact that the GMT will have on areas spanning observational astrophysics—from exoplanets around neighboring stars to the formation of the first, most distant stars, galaxies, and black holes in the universe. The first chapter also describes the GMT itself, explaining its unique design and capabilities, including the first-generation instrument suite that has been chosen to maximize the GMT’s scientific impact during early operations. This book is accessible to a wide audience.

Exoplanet Science Strategy – NASEM report 2018

The GMT Science Requirements for the telescope and associated instruments and facilities flow from the scientific priorities listed in the GMT Science Book. These requirements are used to optimize the telescope design and development process, and to define the goals and requirements for the GMT first generation instruments.

This timelapse shows several stages of the mirror casting process for segment five, including creating the light-weighted mirror mold, loading nearly 20 tons of glass into the mold, and the furnace spinning during “high fire.” Credit: Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab, The University of Arizona and the Giant Magellan Telescope – GMTO Corporation. Find more details in the Science Book

The GMT Science Case has evolved over the course of the project. It has been influenced by the 2010 Decadal Survey’s report “New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics” but has been updated to reflect new discoveries and scientific priorities. The 2018 version of the GMT Science Book is now available. The GMT Science Book focuses on those areas of frontier science best explored with a large aperture ground-based telescope. The book describes the transformative impact that the GMT will have on areas spanning observational astrophysics—from exoplanets around neighboring stars to the formation of the first, most distant stars, galaxies, and black holes in the universe. The first chapter also describes the GMT itself, explaining its unique design and capabilities, including the first-generation instrument suite that has been chosen to maximize the GMT’s scientific impact during early operations. This book is accessible to a wide audience.

The Giant Magellan Telescope’s primary mirror segment five during reveal. Credit: Damien Jemison, Giant Magellan Telescope – GMTO Corporation. The Giant Magellan Telescope’s primary mirrors are fabricated with high-purity, low-expansion, borosilicate glass (called E6 glass) from the Ohara Corporation of Japan. Credit: Damien Jemison, Giant Magellan Telescope – GMTO Corporation. Media Contact Ryan Kallabis Director of Communications rkallabis@gmto.org (626) 204-0554 Multimedia Resources Download the resources • 1.2 GB

Multimedia from the release and media usage statement are available from the GMTO Corporation here and from the University of Arizona here until March 20, 2021. Assets may not appear uncredited. Unless otherwise noted in media usage statement, credit line must be given as follows: Giant Magellan Telescope – GMTO Corporatio

International review panel praises the Giant Magellan Telescope’s innovative seismic protection system capable of protecting the 13.6-million-pound telescope structure from earthquake damage in one of the world’s most seismically active regions.

PASADENA, CA — Engineers designing the Giant Magellan Telescope have solved an immense design challenge never attempted before: Protecting a 22-story rotating observatory and seven of the world’s largest monolithic mirrors from being damaged by earthquakes. The innovative seismic protection design earned top marks from an independent review panel of international experts in November, paving the way for the next generation in observatory design.

“The structures of the next generation of extremely large telescopes are so massive, their instruments so sensitive, and the seismic environments they are located in are so intense, that there’s really no way to avoid seismic protection. We need a seismic isolation system to keep the telescope operational,” said Dr. Bruce Bigelow, the Giant Magellan Telescope’s Site, Enclosure, and Facilities Manager.

The Giant Magellan Telescope is a new 30-meter class ground-based telescope being constructed at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile’s Atacama Desert, one of the best locations on Earth to view the universe. But while this remote region boasts more than 300 clear nights of the galactic center per year, it also is home to some of the biggest, the most frequent, and the most destructive Earthquakes ever recorded. Large earthquakes in Chile can last for more than three minutes and often exceed seven on the surface-wave magnitude scale (MS).

The Giant Magellan Telescope construction site at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, February 2020. Image credit: Giant Magellan Telescope – GMTO Corporation

“Telescopes that have been built in seismically active regions were designed, due to their smaller scale, without explicit seismic mitigation,” said Dr. Dave Ashby, the Giant Magellan Telescope’s Project Engineer. “While most remain operational today, some have incurred costly earthquake damage. The new generation of extremely large telescopes will be built with sophisticated seismic mitigations, including seismic isolation, to balance construction and operational costs over the extended operational service lives of these large facilities.”

The seismic protection system — also known as a seismic isolation system — on the Giant Magellan Telescope is unprecedented in the world of telescopes, in terms of the size and complexity. Unlike hospitals or large bridges, the seismic isolation system needs to not only protect the structures from collapse, but also to prevent the structure and fragile optical components inside from requiring repair. Because the Giant Magellan Telescope’s seismic isolation system serves as the telescope foundation, it must be very reliable. By design, the probability of seismic isolation failure is less than 0.5 percent over the 50-year service life of the observatory. The system is designed to remain inactive during small “nuisance” earthquakes that are common at Las Campanas Observatory. The system will only engage during extreme earthquakes that will typically occur on a 1–2-year time scale.

The Giant Magellan Telescope’s seismic isolation system consists of two lines of defense that keep it safe and allow a return to operations within hours to weeks, depending on the magnitude of a seismic event.

1. Seismic Isolation System: A circular array of 24 single friction pendulum isolators that support the telescope and its pier and protect the telescope’s optical components and instruments from active ground motion caused by a major earthquake.
2. Pier Recentering System: A hydraulic system that can return the 13,602,600-pound telescope structure to its original resting and operational position following a major earthquake.

A circular array of 24 single friction pendulum isolators are located under the Giant Magellan Telescope’s pier that supports the telescope and protects optical components and instruments from active ground motion caused by major earthquakes. Image credit: Giant Magellan Telescope – GMTO Corporation

After a major earthquake, the friction pendulum isolators may not return the telescope exactly back to its normal operation position. “The isolation system will return the telescope to its ‘home’ position within a couple of inches, but that’s not good enough,” said Dr. Bigelow. “That’s where the hydraulics of the pier recentering system come in, which can move the 6,000 metric tons of telescope and pier and return the telescope to a fraction of an inch from where it was before the earthquake.”

Seismic pendulum bearing under full scale test on a 275-ton hydraulic mount with lateral hydraulic ram. Image credit: Giant Magellan Telescope – GMTO Corporation

To validate this revolutionary design, engineers at the Giant Magellan Telescope exposed the design to an independent review panel of internationally renowned experts in seismic isolation systems, very large hydraulic positioning systems, and the formulation and placement of high-strength concrete. Reviewers reported that the preliminary designs have successfully met the seismic protection requirements that, as Dr. Bigelow said, are “absolutely crucial to assuring that the telescope can do its job for 50 years.”

For more information about the Giant Magellan Telescope, visit gmto.org

###

Media Contact
Ryan Kallabis
Director of Communications
rkallabis@gmto.org
(626) 204-0554

Multimedia Resources
Multimedia from the release are available here until January 8, 2021.

Assets may not appear uncredited. Credit line must be given as follows: Giant Magellan Telescope – GMTO Corporation.

The GMT Science Case has evolved over the course of the project. It has been influenced by the 2010 Decadal Survey’s report “New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics” but has been updated to reflect new discoveries and scientific priorities. The 2018 version of the GMT Science Book is now available. The GMT Science Book focuses on those areas of frontier science best explored with a large aperture ground-based telescope. The book describes the transformative impact that the GMT will have on areas spanning observational astrophysics—from exoplanets around neighboring stars to the formation of the first, most distant stars, galaxies, and black holes in the universe. The first chapter also describes the GMT itself, explaining its unique design and capabilities, including the first-generation instrument suite that has been chosen to maximize the GMT’s scientific impact during early operations. This book is accessible to a wide audience.

Exoplanet Science Strategy – NASEM report 2018

The GMT Science Requirements for the telescope and associated instruments and facilities flow from the scientific priorities listed in the GMT Science Book. These requirements are used to optimize the telescope design and development process, and to define the goals and requirements for the GMT first generation instruments.

This timelapse shows several stages of the mirror casting process for segment five, including creating the light-weighted mirror mold, loading nearly 20 tons of glass into the mold, and the furnace spinning during “high fire.” Credit: Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab, The University of Arizona and the Giant Magellan Telescope – GMTO Corporation. Find more details in the Science Book

The GMT Science Case has evolved over the course of the project. It has been influenced by the 2010 Decadal Survey’s report “New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics” but has been updated to reflect new discoveries and scientific priorities. The 2018 version of the GMT Science Book is now available. The GMT Science Book focuses on those areas of frontier science best explored with a large aperture ground-based telescope. The book describes the transformative impact that the GMT will have on areas spanning observational astrophysics—from exoplanets around neighboring stars to the formation of the first, most distant stars, galaxies, and black holes in the universe. The first chapter also describes the GMT itself, explaining its unique design and capabilities, including the first-generation instrument suite that has been chosen to maximize the GMT’s scientific impact during early operations. This book is accessible to a wide audience.

The Giant Magellan Telescope’s primary mirror segment five during reveal. Credit: Damien Jemison, Giant Magellan Telescope – GMTO Corporation. The Giant Magellan Telescope’s primary mirrors are fabricated with high-purity, low-expansion, borosilicate glass (called E6 glass) from the Ohara Corporation of Japan. Credit: Damien Jemison, Giant Magellan Telescope – GMTO Corporation. Media Contact Ryan Kallabis Director of Communications rkallabis@gmto.org (626) 204-0554 Multimedia Resources Download the resources • 1.2 GB

Multimedia from the release and media usage statement are available from the GMTO Corporation here and from the University of Arizona here until March 20, 2021. Assets may not appear uncredited. Unless otherwise noted in media usage statement, credit line must be given as follows: Giant Magellan Telescope – GMTO Corporatio

The post How We’ll Find Life in the Universe appeared first on Giant Magellan Telescope.

The Giant Magellan Telescope fast-tracks development of revolutionary optical technologies necessary to transform humanity’s view and understanding of the universe at first light

PASADENA, CA — The GMTO Corporation has received a $17.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to accelerate the prototyping and testing of some of the most powerful optical and infrared technologies ever engineered. These crucial advancements for the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile will allow astronomers to see farther into space with more detail than any other optical telescope before. The NSF grant positions the GMT to be one of the first in a new generation of large telescopes, approximately three times the size of any ground-based optical telescope built to date.

The GMT and the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) are a part of the US Extremely Large Telescope Program (US-ELTP), a joint initiative with NSF’s NOIRLab to provide superior observing access to the entire sky as never before. Upon completion of each telescope, US scientists and international partners will be able to take advantage of the program’s two pioneering telescopes to carry out transformational research that answers some of humanity’s most pressing questions, such as are we alone in the universe and where did we come from.

“We are honored to receive our first NSF grant,” said Dr. Robert Shelton, President of the GMTO Corporation. “It is a giant step toward realizing the GMT’s scientific goals and the profound impact the GMT will have on the future of human knowledge.”

https://www.gmto.org/wp-content/uploads/NSF20Award20Announcement-5.mp4

 

One of the great challenges of engineering revolutionary technologies is constructing them to operate at optimal performance. The Giant Magellan Telescope is designed to have a resolving power ten times greater than the Hubble Space Telescope — one of the most productive scientific achievements in the history of astronomy. This advancement in image quality is a prerequisite for the GMT to fully realize its scientific potential and expand our knowledge of the universe.

“Image quality on any telescope starts with the primary mirror,” said Dr. James Fanson, Project Manager of the GMTO Corporation. “The Giant Magellan Telescope’s primary mirror comprises seven 8.4m mirror segments. To achieve diffraction-limited imaging, we have to be able to phase these primary mirror segments so that they behave as a monolithic mirror. Once phased, we must then correct for Earth’s turbulent atmospheric distortion.”

This image quality comparison is of a small patch of sky as observed from the ground through the atmosphere with the naked eye (left), as the Hubble Space Telescope would observe it (center), and a simulation of the Giant Magellan Telescope using adaptive optics to achieve diffraction limited seeing from the ground (right). When online, the GMT will achieve ten times better resolution than the Hubble Space Telescope. Image credit: Giant Magellan Telescope – GMTO Corporation

Phasing involves precisely aligning a telescope’s segmented mirrors and other optical components so that they work in unison to produce crisp images of deep space. Achieving this with seven of the world’s largest mirrors ever built is no easy task. The immense size of the GMT’s primary mirror requires a powerful adaptive optics system to correct for the blurring effects of the Earth’s atmospheric turbulence at kilohertz speeds. In other words, astronomers need to take the subtle “twinkle” out of the stars in order to capture high-resolution data from celestial objects thousands of light-years from our planet.

The NSF grant enables the GMT to build two phasing testbeds that will allow engineers to demonstrate, in a controlled laboratory setting, that its core designs will work to align and phase the telescope’s seven mirror segments with the required precision to achieve diffraction-limited imaging at first light in 2029. This includes a full-scale prototype of the primary mirror support and control system that delivers active optical control. The testbeds will be developed at the University of Arizona Center for Astronomical Adaptive Optics (CAAO) and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO), while actuator testing and integration of the primary mirror support will be developed at Texas A&M University.

A gray steel structure that simulates one of the massive 16.5 ton Giant Magellan Telescope primary mirror segments is installed onto a test cell. The GMT test cell and mirror simulator will be used to test the support structure and actuators that hold the massive telescope in place, including the software that controls the precise movements of the mirrors. Image Credit: Steve West, Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab at the University of Arizona

The NSF grant also enables the partial build and testing of a next-generation Adaptive Secondary Mirror (ASM), which is used to perform the primary mirror phasing and atmospheric distortion correction. This work will be developed in contract with AdOptica.

“Our seven Adaptive Secondary Mirrors take this technology to the next step,” said Dr. Fanson. “No one has attempted to use seven ASMs before the Giant Magellan Telescope. They are probably the most advanced tech we have on the telescope, and their success is a top priority. We need to test and validate their performance early on in the project.”

Exploded view of a Giant Magellan Telescope’s adaptive secondary mirror segment showing the key components which include the adaptive face sheet, rigid reference body, electromagnetic actuators, cold plate, and the 6- degrees-of-freedom segment positioner. Image credit: Giant Magellan Telescope – GMTO Corporation

Astronomers will use the GMT’s high-fidelity adaptive mirrors and other revolutionary adaptive optics technologies to detect faint biosignatures from distant exoplanets — one of the GMT’s primary scientific goals.

This work is part of a larger $23 million joint-award to the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) and the GMTO Corporation over the next three years. The GMT project is the work of a distinguished international consortium of leading universities and science institutions.

 

Media Contact
Ryan Kallabis
Director of Communications
rkallabis@gmto.org
(626) 204-0554

Multimedia Resources
Additional images from the release are available here until September 23, 2020.

Assets may not appear uncredited. Credit line must be given as follows: Giant Magellan Telescope – GMTO Corporation.