La sfida dei telescopi giganteschi
La prossima generazione di telescopi potrebbe vedere la luce nel 2022 e saranno giganteschi. Il Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), il Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) e l'European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) si stanno contendendo la palma del più grande osservatorio astronomico mai realizzato.
Three new observatories are on the drawing boards, all with diameters, or apertures, between 25 and 40 meters, and all with estimated first light being collected in 2022: the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT, headquartered in Pasadena, Calif.), the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT, also in Pasadena) and the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT, headquartered in Garching, Germany). At stake are the mapping of asteroids, dwarf planets, and planetary moons in our solar system; imaging whole planetary systems; observing close-in the Goliathan black hole at the Milky Way's core; discovering the detailed laws governing star and galaxy formation; and taking baby pictures of the farthest objects in the early universe.
Thanks to these telescopes, astronomy is poised to reinvent itself over the next few decades. Renown and glory, headlines and prestige, and perhaps a few Nobel Prizes too, will go to those astronomers that first reveal a bit of new cosmic machinery. Surprisingly, the story of this race will be written, not just in the technical specifications and design breakthroughs of the instruments themselves, but also in the organizational approaches that each team has taken. The horse race is a unique window both into technology, and into the process of science itself.
