FAQ

What is the largest telescope?

FAST in China has a 500 m dish, the largest single-aperture radio telescope. For optical telescopes, the Gran Telescopio Canarias has a 10.4 m mirror. The ELT will have a 39.3 m mirror when completed in 2028.

What is the most powerful space telescope?

The James Webb Space Telescope with its 6.5 m gold-coated mirror. It is 100x more powerful than Hubble and can see the first galaxies formed after the Big Bang.

Why are telescopes on mountains?

Altitude places telescopes above water vapor and atmospheric turbulence. Mauna Kea at 4,205 m is above 40% of the atmosphere. The Atacama Desert is the driest place on Earth. These conditions provide the clearest possible views.

What did LIGO discover?

In 2015, LIGO made the first direct detection of gravitational waves from two merging black holes 1.3 billion light-years away. This confirmed Einsteins prediction from 100 years earlier and won the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics.