Telescopes

You have been assigned to a committee at your university to study the feasibility of bringing in a world-class telescope. Prepare a report by answering the following questions in a Word document.


1. What kind of ground-based telescope is currently the most important tool of scientific study of the cosmos?
The most important tool of scientific study of cosmos is the 11 meter Large Binocular Telescope, because it is the largest extremely large telescope finished in 2008. Telescopes are better the bigger they get. It only made one discovery of a galaxy cluster. I knew this, because the five European countries are planning a 50 meter telescope. By chance the Near-Earth Object threat is extremely severe; the Arecibo Observatory would clinch Large Binocular Telescope's 1st place and other telescopes due to this telescope having the best range of any radio telescope! LBT is both infrared and optinal type. (Universe and Beyond, pg 160, 2004)


2. List three to four of the most famous and advanced telescopes in use for space exploration.
My picks on most famous and advanced telescopes include the Keck space telescope (Hawaii). Gran Telescopia Canarias (Spain), Large Binocular Telescope (Arizona) and the Arecibo telescope (Puerto Rico). I picked the Kecks, because they were powerful in 2005. The two Keck space telescopes are just one of the large at 10 m long and in Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii. One was built in 1993 and the second in 1996. It runs optical, and near-infrared wavelengths. The Large Binocular Telescope is the most advanced ever built and opened in Mt. Graham, Arizona in 2008 and has a 15 meter mirror. There is also the Gran Telescopia Canarias owned by Spain which is the world's second largest in view. It has 10.4 meter mirror. It is a reflecting telescope. The University of Florida gets to use it for 55 nights annually. The largest radio telescope is the Arecibo telescope operated by Cornell University. It has a dome that shields reflectors from elements and man-made radio frequency. The first reflector is the ground reflector. Then the signal goes to the secondary reflector. Thirdly, the signal goes to the tertiary reflector. The incoming rays then focused at the receiver room. It is steered by moving the dome up and down with a curved arm. It is the most powerful telescope, and a few astronomists say without Arecibo Observatory, Earth would be in danger of meteorites. It has 40,000 aluminum plates and is equivalent of 26 football pitches. It's main purpose is to classify near-Earth objects which would take 400 years to come to Earth. Sorry for not picking the Green Bank Telescope in Virginia. I knew that I should have had at least one radio telescope and getting photos is preferable than radio signals in my opinion. (wikipedia, 2010)(telegraph.uk, 2008)(Cornell University, 2010)

3. What are the advantages of space-based telescopes compared to the ground-based ones?
Space telescopes don't have atmospheric distortion and results in significantly sharper pictures. Space telescopes cancel out scattering light caused by atmosphere where X-ray, gamma ray, and ultraviolet rays can be observed. When the Hubble space telescope is only 2.5 meters, the ground based telescopes can be beyond 10 meters. The LBT telescope should be 10 times sharper than the Hubble. Ground based telescopes are always open to 3rd party usage while the space telescopes are solely for NASA or European Space Agency usage. Put all the ground-based telescopes together, and you have a better idea sooner of meteorites in a collision course with Earth. (wikipedia, 2010)


4. What mirror diameters are proposed for the next generation reflectors?
European Extremely Large Telescope has a mirror with the diameter of 42 meters or 137 feet near an inferred wavelength for 2018. This spec was supposed to be 100 meters, but due to Greece's bankruptcy and the sorry state of some other worse off European countries, the ELT became bang for the buck instead. The 100 meter spec could read Earth-size planets for the 40 nearest stars. The United States has a extremely large telescope called the Thirty Meter Telescope, It's mirror is only 30 meters. (Wikipedia, 2010)

References

Anonymous. (2010). Overwhelmingly Large Telescope
Retrieved June 10, 2010, from Wikipedia website
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overwhelmingly_Large_Telescope
Anonymous. (2010). European Extremely Large Telescope
Retrieved June 10, 2010, from Wikipedia website
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Extremely_Large_Telescope
Anonymous. (2010). Gran Telescopio Canarias
Retrieved June 10, 2010, from Wikipedia website
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gran_Telescopio_Canarias
Anonymous. (2010). Large Binocular Telescope
Retrieved June 10, 2010, from Wikipedia website
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Binocular_Telescope
Anonymous. (2010). How the Arecibo telescope works
Retrieved June 10, 2010, from Cornell website
http://www.astro.cornell.edu/academics/courses/astro2201/ao_scheme.htm
Goddard, J. (2008, June 18). Threat to Worlds Most Powerful Radio Telescopes Means We May
Not Hear ET Retrieved June 10, 2010, from Telegraph website
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/2391516/Threat-to-worlds-most-powerful-radio-telescope-means-we-may-not-hear-ET.html
Dickinson, T. (Ed.). (2004). "Chapter 10 - Telescopes for the 21st Century"
The Universe and Beyond, 4th Edition. (pp 160) Canada: Firefly Book, Inc.