LA PALMA, Canary Islands — One of the world’s most powerful telescopes opened its shutters for the first time Friday to begin exploring faint light from distant parts of the universe.
The Gran Telescopio Canarias, a $185 million telescope featuring a 34-foot mirror, sits atop an extinct volcano. Its location above cloud cover takes advantage of the pristine skies in the Atlantic. Planning for the telescope began in 1987 and has involved more than 1,000 people from 100 companies.
The observatory is located 7,870 feet above sea-level where winds keep the atmosphere stable and transparent, the Canary Islands Astrophysics Institute said.
The institute, which runs the telescope, said it will capture the birth of stars, study characteristics of black holes and decipher some of the chemical components of the Big Bang. The telescope is composed of 36 separate mirrors that began slowly focusing in July 2007 to eventually act as a single large reflecting surface that directs light onto a central camera point.
Large reflecting telescopes began making major contributions to astronomical research when Edwin Hubble perfected the technique of capturing photographic exposures of space with the then-massive 200-inch mirror at Mount Palomar Observatory, in north San Diego County, California in Jan. 1949.
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