ESO Council Gives Green Light to Detailed Study of the European Extremely Large Telescope (Forwarded)

ESO Education and Public Relations Dept.

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Contact:
Roberto Gilmozzi
E-ELT Principal Investigator
ESO, Garching, Germany
Phone: +49 89 3200 6667

For Immediate Release: 11 December 2006

ESO 46/06

The Rise of a Giant

ESO Council Gives Green Light to Detailed Study of the European Extremely
Large Telescope

European astronomy has received a tremendous boost with the decision from
ESO's governing body to proceed with detailed studies for the European
Extremely Large Telescope. This study, with a budget of 57 million euro [USD
74 million], will make it possible to start, in three years time, the
construction of an optical/infrared telescope with a diameter around 40m
that will revolutionise ground-based astronomy. The chosen design is based
on a revolutionary concept specially developed for a telescope of this size.

"The decision by the ESO Council to go ahead with the design study for an
European Extremely Large Telescope is a very exciting one for European
astronomy,", said Richard Wade, President of the ESO Council.

"Today is a great day because the ESO Council has authorised us to go
forward with the final design of the next flagship telescope of ESO,", says
Catherine Cesarsky, ESO's Director General.

Since the end of last year, ESO has been working together with its user
community of European astronomers and astrophysicists to define the new
giant telescope needed by the middle of the next decade [1]. More than one
hundred astronomers from all European countries have been involved
throughout 2006, helping the ESO Project Offices to produce a novel concept,
in which performance, cost, schedule and risk were carefully evaluated.

This fast pace has also been possible thanks to early conceptual studies in
Europe (such as the ESO OWL and the EURO-50 studies) and research and
development done in collaboration with a large number of European institutes
and high-tech industries to develop critical enabling technologies within
the framework of the EU FP6 programme and with significant contributions
from all partners.

Provisionally dubbed E-ELT for the European Extremely Large Telescope, ESO's
innovative concept was presented in detail two weeks ago to more than 250
European astronomers at a conference in Marseille. Their enthusiastic
welcome paved the way for the decision by the ESO Council to move to the
crucial next phase: detailed design of the full facility.

"At the end of the three year Final Design Study, we will know exactly how
everything is going to be built including a detailed costing," said
Cesarsky. "We then hope to start construction and have it ready by 2017,
when we can install instruments and use it!"

The present concept, estimated to cost around 800 million euro, features as
a baseline a telescope with a 42-m diameter mirror, and is revolutionary.

"A telescope of this size could not be built without a complete rethinking
of the way we make telescopes," said Catherine Cesarsky.

The primary 42-m diameter mirror is composed of 906 hexagonal segments, each
1.45 m in size, while the secondary mirror is as large as 6 m in diameter.
In order to overcome the fuzziness of stellar images due to atmospheric
turbulence the telescope needs to incorporate adaptive mirrors into its
optics [2]. A tertiary mirror, 4.2 m in diameter, relays the light to the
adaptive optics system, composed of two mirrors: a 2.5-m mirror supported by
5000 or more actuators able to distort its own shape a thousand times per
second, and one 2.7 m in diameter that allows for the final image
corrections. This five mirror approach results in an exceptional image
quality, with no significant aberrations in the field of view.

The site of the E-ELT is not yet fixed as studies are still undergoing with
a plan to make a decision by 2008.

Extremely Large Telescopes are considered worldwide as one of the highest
priorities in ground-based astronomy. They will vastly advance astrophysical
knowledge, allowing detailed studies of subjects including planets around
other stars, the first objects in the Universe, super-massive black holes,
and the nature and distribution of the dark matter and dark energy which
dominate the Universe.

With a diameter of 42 m and its adaptive optics concept, the E-ELT will be
more than one hundred times more sensitive than the present-day largest
optical telescopes, such as the 10-m Keck telescopes or the 8.2-m VLT
telescopes.

"This is really the beginning of a new era for optical and infrared
astronomy," said Catherine Cesarsky.

More Information

The ESO Council represents 11 European countries (Belgium, Denmark, France,
Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and
the United Kingdom; while Spain is expected to become a full member before
the end of this year), accounting for most of the astronomical investment
capabilities of Europe. Designing, producing, installing and continuously
upgrading such a facility is a huge undertaking over many decades.

The European ELT basic reference design presented end of November in
Marseille for community feedback has been conducted within a close
partnership with both national agencies and their scientific institutes and
high-tech industrial firms. In that way, ESO has largely tapped present
European knowledge and capability in all key areas: science priorities,
adaptive optics & instrumentation, telescope design and site evaluation. The
large Research and Development efforts conducted in the last few years
within our community, in particular the FP6 Opticon and ELT Design Study
programs, are essential for this endeavour.

The European Extremely Large Telescope project will maintain and reinforce
Europe's position at the forefront of astrophysical research, gained in
large part at the turn of the century through the ESO Very Large Telescope
facility.

Background information is available in the E-ELT Media Kit produced for the
Marseille conference. This press release is also accompanied by Broadcast
quality material.

Notes

[1]: The current generation of 4 to 10-m telescopes have provided
astronomers with an incredible wealth of knowledge about our Universe, with
the discovery of hundreds of extra-solar systems -- some of which have quite
amazing properties -- and the study of galaxies located extremely far away,
whose light comes almost from the very first epoch in the Universe when
stars and galaxies started to form. Even more breathtaking is the recent
evidence that nearly all the content of our Universe is made of dark matter,
whose nature is as yet unknown, and dark energy, the very existence of which
is presently not understood. These discoveries pose many new questions that
future generation of ELTs should be able to answer. The combination of
unprecedented acuity and light gathering power will provide unique images of
objects at all scales, from those in our own solar system and exoplanetary
systems to the very first points of light in our Universe. Moreover,
detailed spectral analysis will reveal invaluable information on their
nature, motions and characteristics.

[2]: Post-focal Adaptive Optics (AO), i.e. built into the instruments and
not in the telescope design itself, is now a mature technology with seven AO
systems and a laser guide star in operation at Paranal. Embedding AO into
the telescope as a baseline option is the natural evolutionary step in
telescope design.

National contacts for the media:

Belgium: Dr. Rodrigo Alvarez, +32-2-474 70 50
Finland: Ms. Riitta Tirronen, +358 9 7748 8369
Denmark: Dr. Michael Linden-Vnle, +45-33-18 19 97
France: Dr. Daniel Kunth, +33-1-44 32 80 85
Germany: Dr. Jakob Staude, +49-6221-528229
Italy: Dr. Leopoldo Benacchio, +39-347-230 26 51
The Netherlands: Ms. Marieke Baan, +31-20-525 74 80
Portugal: Prof. Teresa Lago, +351-22-089 833
Sweden: Dr. Jesper Sollerman, +46-8-55 37 85 54
Switzerland: Dr. Martin Steinacher, +41-31-324 23 82
United Kingdom: Mr. Peter Barratt, +44-1793-44 20 25

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