Giant Telescopes of Tomorrow
- By Peter Tyson
- Posted 03.01.10
- NOVA
In the 20th century, telescopes advanced greatly in size, and their discoveries kept pace. But to address some of the most pressing cosmological questions today—what are dark matter and dark energy? is there life elsewhere?—space scientists agree that we need much bigger and much better eyes on the sky. In this slide show, see some of the giant optical and radio telescopes now under development.
Launch Interactive
Printable Version
Immense optical and radio telescopes now in the works promise to make astonishing discoveries about the cosmos.
Editor's note: This feature only touches on each of these telescopes; for more information, see the individual project websites. Note also that due to funding snags and other issues, some of these instruments may fall by the wayside or be replaced by others, including some that may already be in the planning stages but are not included here.
Credits
Images
- (James Webb Space Telescope)
- Courtesy NASA
- (Giant Magellan Telescope)
- Courtesy GMT
- (Thirty Meter Telescope)
- Courtesy TMT Observatory Corporation
- (European Extremely Large Telescope)
- Courtesy ESO
- (Large Synoptic Survey Telescope)
- LSST Corporation
- (Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array)
- Courtesy ALMA
- (Low Frequency Array)
- Courtesy ASTRON
- (Square Kilometer Array)
- Courtesy Swinburne Astronomy Productions and SKA
Related Links
-
Hunting the Edge of Space: Hr 2
The Ever-Expanding Universe: Huge new telescopes are poised to penetrate the enigmas of dark matter and dark energy.
-
Profile: Caroline Moore
Teen astronomer Caroline Moore, who has discovered a supernova and visited the White House, sings an Irish ballad.
-
Hunt for Alien Earths
Astronomers may be on the brink of finding Earth-like planets beyond our solar system.
-
How Hubble Sees
Assemble the famous image of the Eagle Nebula from the Hubble Space Telescope's raw data.
You need the Flash Player plug-in to view this content.
