Article Posted on : - Dec 29, 2008

Artist's renderings of the Giant Magellan Telescope in its enclosure. Official photo

SEOUL (BNS): The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) announced on Sunday that the country would take part in a project to build the world's largest telescope. The aim of the telescope is to understand the formation and evolution of the universe.

The state-run space institute KASI said that it had acquired 1.85 billion won ($14.2 million) from the government to participate in the Great Magellan Telescope (GMT) project taking place in the Andes Mountains in Chile.

The state-run space institute is hopeful that if it participates in the giant telescope work, it will help the country in utilising the telescope for 30 days in a year. The work on the telescope began in 2003.

Yonhap News Agency quoting a KASI researcher said that by taking part in building the GMT telescope, South Korea will get a chance to observe and work with cutting-edge experts in the space, nano technology and IT sectors.

"The Daejeon-based institute will work with the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science on the telescope construction," the KASI researcher said.

Expected to be completed by 2018, the GMT will have a resolving power of a 25-meter primary mirror, far larger than any other telescope built in the past. Because of its powerful resolution, the telescope will be able to produce images up to 10 times sharper than the Hubble Space Telescope operated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the European Space Agency, the news agency said.

Scientists said that the GMT will be used to understand the origins and evolution of planetary systems, view the formation and growth of far-away stars, galaxies and black holes and explore properties of dark matter and dark energy, which comprise the great bulk of the universe's mass.

Institutions like Harvard University, University of Texas in Austin, Australian National University and Astronomy Australia Ltd are participating in the joint collaboration of GMT.