Science
Related: About this forumEurope's Extremely Large Telescope vs SydneyOpera House
Construction has begun
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)The pyramids really put it into perspective.
Thanks.
Jeff Murdoch
(168 posts)Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)It's really just a fake Casino
Just kidding you are right
olddots
(10,237 posts)Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)And its on its way too
William Seger
(10,778 posts)In terms of both scientific knowledge and awesome beauty, I believe Hubble has been the most productive and significant scientific instrument ever built, bar none, and Webb is a big next step. I can hardly wait! I'm really happy that we haven't gotten so, um, Republican that we stop funding "big science" projects.
eppur_se_muova
(36,266 posts)Really Ginormous Telescope
That's bound to be next.
jakeXT
(10,575 posts)Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)Great info history
Thanks
jakeXT
(10,575 posts)jakeXT
(10,575 posts)Thor_MN
(11,843 posts)Then again, with adaptive optics, motion is important too...
Bearware
(151 posts)Is it a mind set or is there some overwhelming physics reason we have not started building extremely large telescopes (from radio to x-ray) in orbit?
It takes a huge amount of money and effort to get a large telescope in orbit - a lot of which goes into just making it so it can survive the launch. Why are we not launching the raw materials and potentially semi-autonomous robots to build ultra-low mass telescopes in a micro gravity and high vacuum environment? If something in a design doesn't work, modify it in orbit or melt it down and turn it into a new design in orbit.
Having a telescope in an atmosphere forces all sorts of huge limitations on it's capabilities and availability.