University of Florida News

GTC video

Supers:
Canary Islands, Spain
Courtesy: Gran Telescopio Canarias
Charles Telesco/UF astronomer

The world’s largest telescope, with a lens thirty-four feet in diameter, is about to give astronomers the best view of the universe they’ve ever had. The University of Florida owns a share of the Gran Telescopio Canarias or GTC, located in the Canary Islands. UF’s the only US institution involved in the partnership with Spain and Mexico. Astronomers say when it comes to telescopes, a bigger mirror means much greater detail.

Charles Telesco/UF astronomer: “The bigger the telescope the finer the detail that you can see. And the fineness of the detail is almost as important to an astronomer as the faintness of the object, because the fineness of the detail tells us about the structure of a disk where planets are forming. It tells us the structure of a galaxy, the detailed structure of a galaxy that’s just-forming out at maybe ten billion light years.”

UF astronomers have built a special camera called “Canari-Cam” to use with the telescope. Just as the telescope itself see more detail by bringing in more light, Canari-Cam will allow astronomers to see some cooler objects that bright stars tend to obscure.

Charles Telesco/UF astronomer: “The camera has the capability of putting a little spot to block the bright star so that we can then look for faint objects near the star. So we can look for very, very cool planets in the process of forming.”

UF astronomers say the telescope’s so powerful and easy to control, it could detect an ordinary candle from twenty thousand miles away. At the University of Florida, I’m Quinten Eyman.

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