Europe Chooses Chile

Europe has chosen the location for building a new observatory containing the biggest telescope in the world. That site is Cerro Armazones, a 3,000m high mountain in the Atacama Desert in Chile. The site was chosen because it has an average of 320 clear nights a year, which is one of the few places. The telescope has been named the E-ELT (European Extremely Large Telescope). It will be five times the size of any of today's telescopes, about 42m in diameter. The ESO, who is planning the project says it will start at the end of this year if they get the go-ahead, and then it should be ready for use by 2018. The estimated cost of the project is billions of euros. The telescope, when finished, will be able to examine rocky planets outside of solar system, black holes, and "dark matter" in the universe. This telescope is a part of Europe's plan for research facilities. Europe is currently trying to complete its science goals in the next 20 years.

Submitted By: Nora Beswick