Casting a $20 Million Mirror for the World’s Largest Telescope

Casting a $20 Million Mirror for the World’s Largest Telescope

The glass arcs that will let astronomers peer back millions of years are decades in the making

Building a mirror for any giant telescope is no simple feat. The sheer size of the glass, the nanometer precision of its curves, its carefully calculated optics, and the adaptive software required to run it make this a task of herculean proportions. But the recent castings of the 15-metric ton, off-axis mirrors for the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) forced engineers to push the design and manufacturing process beyond all previous limits.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/video/aerospace/astrophysics/casting-a-20-million-mirror-for-the-worlds-largest-telescope
https://spectrum.ieee.org/video/aerospace/astrophysics/casting-a-20-million-mirror-for-the-worlds-largest-telescope