Biggest Land-Based Telescopes In The World. In a telescope, the mirror is arguably the most important part. Indeed, the ability of this instrument to see a more or less luminous object depends on it. Here below we have mentioned the most powerful and gigantic telescopes in the world.
The larger the surface of the mirror, the more the quantity of light received increases, which significantly improves the quality of the images obtained. If telescopes are becoming more imposing, it is, therefore, to increase their performance in order to increase precision in space research.
5 Biggest & Powerful Land-Based Telescopes in the World
1. The Very Large Telescope (VLT)
The very large telescope is the largest land-based telescope in the World. It consists of four telescopes. Each of them has a mirror of 8.2 m in diameter to constitute an equivalent of 8.2 m in radius. It is located in the Chilean Andes, more precisely on the site of Cerro Paranal. The inauguration of the VLT was carried out towards the end of 2006.
2. The Large Binocular Telescope (LBT)
This telescope has two glasses of a 4.2 m radius. Combined, they are 11.8 m in diameter. It is located in Arizona on Mount Graham, at an altitude of 3,200 m. The LBT began scanning the stars in October 2005.
3. The Southern African Large Telescope (SALT)
It has earned its place among the most imposing telescopes in the southern hemisphere thanks to its 5.5 m radius hexagonal mirror. Operational since 2005, it is located in a desert environment of the Karoo. The construction of this large Southern African telescope required an investment of $30 million.
4. The Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC)
For its part, the GTC has a mirror 10.4 m in diameter which extends over 75.7 m2. It was erected on the island of La Palma at an altitude of 2396 m. Construction works were completed in 2007.
5. The Twin telescopes Keck I and Keck II
They have a mirror with a radius of 5 m each. They were built on Mount Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii so that they look like huge snowballs. These engineering marvels began to observe the cosmos in 1993.
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