Manufacturing of the sixth mirror of the Giant Magellan Telescope has just begun according to the publication released by the University of Texas at Austin. This will be part of one of seven of the world’s largest monolithic mirrors that allow astronauts to see further into the universe.
According to Taft Armandoff, Director of the university’s McDonald Observatory and Vice Chairman of the GMT Group’s Board of Directors, the mirror projection will bring the university’s faculty, students, and researchers one step closer to completing the telescope.
(Image: Wikimedia Commons)
An artist’s concept of the completed Giant Magellan Telescope that will be located in the Atacama Desert about 115 km (71 mi) northeast of La Serena, Chile.
Marvel of Modern Engineering
The sixth Giant Magellan Telescope mirror measures two stories high when standing on the edge or about 27.5 feet (8.4 meters).
It is done at the Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab at the University of Arizona, which takes about four years to complete.
According to Phys.org, throwing a sixth mirror is considered a marvel of modern engineering. This is usually marked by a large personal event that many people around the world attend. But with the chronic pandemic, the construction of the sixth mirror is kept behind closed doors to protect the health of the ten who throw the mirror.
James Fanson, Project Manager of Giant Magellan Telescope, pointed out that the light collection mirror is the most important part of a telescope. The larger it is, the better astronauts could see into the universe in more detail.
He also said that the unique primary mirror design of the telescope is made up of seven of the largest mirrors in the world and the sixth projection mirror is one step towards completion.
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The Giant Magellan Telescope will have a light collection area of 3,961 square feet (368 meters) once in operation, allowing people to see the torch engraved on a dime from nearly 100 miles away, according to EurekAlert .
In addition, the report said that the telescope also offers the widest view of an oversized Telescope in the 30-meter (98-foot) class.
In addition, the Giant Magellan Telescope is reported to have ten times the visual power of the infamous Hubble Space Telescope and four times larger than the expected James Webb Space Telescope, which will be launched this year. year.
How is the sixth mirror made?
The large mirror of the Magellan Giant Telescope contains the melting of nearly 20 tons (38,490 pounds) of E6 glass, defined as high purity borosilicate glass and low expansion, into a designed spinning furnace especially to throw large mirrors for the telescope.
Phys.org reported that the furnace spins at five revolutions per minute at the height of the smelting process to heat the glass at 1,165 degrees Celsius (2,129 F) for five hours to melt it into the mold.
It then enters a one-month annealing process where it is called while the furnace is spinning at a slower rate to harden the glass by removing internal pressures. It would take another month and a half to cool at room temperature.
Mirror polishing would take about two years after the cooling process before having an optical surface less than a thousandth of the width of a human hair or five times smaller than a coronavirus.
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Check out more news and information on the Giant Magellan Telescope on Science Times.