Popular Science USA – July-August 2019

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the Giant Magellan Telescope

might one day photograph exo-

planets, or look back through

time to see our universe in its

youth. Gazing farther into

space than ever before requires

building the largest reflector

yet, one far too big to send into

orbit. The instrument slowly

rising on a Chilean mountain-

top will contain seven mirrors,

each 27.6 feet across and

arrayed like a daisy. They’re be-

ing cast at the Richard F. Caris

Mirror Laboratory at the Uni-

versity of Arizona, and each

requires 18 tons of glass and

more than a year of polishing to

attain its spoonlike shape.

When the last of them is in-

stalled (the goal is 2028),

scientists will view the cosmos

with 10 times the resolution of

the Hubble Space Telescope.

by

chuck

squatriglia

photographs

by spencer

lowell