Andrew Yee
July 25th 05, 08:02 PM
Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council
Swindon, U.K.
Contacts
Julia Maddock
PPARC Press Office
Tel +44 1793 442094
Dr Isobel Hook
University of Oxford
Tel +44 7739 174455
Professor Gerry Gilmore
Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge
Colin Cunningham
Director, Technology Development
UK Astronomy Technology Centre
Tel: +44(0)131 668 8223
08 July 2005
European Astronomers set sights on Earth-like planets and the first
starlight
Astronomers from across Europe today (July 7th) took a step closer to
making their plans for a giant telescope a reality when they unveiled the
scientific case for an Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) -- a monster
telescope with a light capturing mirror of between 50 and 100 metres,
dwarfing all previous optical telescope facilities. The announcement was
made at a meeting in Dwingeloo, the Netherlands and initiates the design
phase of the project. Astronomers plan to use the ELT to search for
planets like the Earth in other star systems and to find out when the
first stars in the Universe began to shine.
The first step when selecting the specifications and design options for a
new telescope is for astronomers to establish the science that could be
achieved with the facility. The science case launched today will be used
in a Design Study funded by the European Union's Framework 6 Programme and
a Europe-wide consortium of partners, including industry, aimed at
evaluating critical technologies needed to build a giant telescope, and
led by the European Southern Observatory (ESO). The UK part of this 30M
Euro programme is led by the UK Astronomy Technology Centre (UK ATC) and
partly funded by the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council
(PPARC).
Roberto Gilmozzi, ESO's coordinator of the ELT Design Study said, "The ELT
Design Study initiative, a 31M Euro activity partially funded by the FP6,
shows the willingness of Europe to pursue a common path towards the
eventual construction of an ELT. It is a design independent study of
enabling technologies that brings together European institutes and
industry to define a palette of ELT 'building blocks' that indicate the
way in which the telescope design should evolve to take advantage of the
directions industry believes are most appropriate and cost effective."
Bigger is better
The power of optical telescopes is limited by the size of the mirror that
is used to collect light, which in turn determines how well they can
distinguish between faint objects -- the bigger the mirror, the fainter
the object that the telescope will be able to see. For example, a 100m
telescope with perfect compensation for atmospheric disturbances would be
able to separate two points on the moon two metres apart, compared with
95m apart for the Hubble Space Telescope.
The quest for bigger mirrors has pushed current technologies to their
limits. Some of the most advanced 8-10 metre telescopes now rely on
mirrors constructed from smaller mirror segments, controlled by computers
to act as a single large surface. These new techniques offer astronomers
the opportunity for an unprecedented step-up in size. A 100m telescope
would use a greater area of precision mirrors than has been made for all
the previous telescopes ever built!
Dr Isobel Hook from the University of Oxford has led the working group
producing the science case. She says, "An Extremely Large Telescope is a
very exciting prospect for astronomers. Something with a 50 or even 100
metre mirror could completely change our understanding of the Universe and
answer truly fundamental questions such as 'Is the Earth unique?' and 'How
did the first stars and galaxies form?'. We will have much more
information than ever before -- it will be a bit like being there when the
first telescopes were pointed at the sky."
The next step
The European ELT Design Study is a five year project to explore the
challenges of building an ELT, with most of the work being done in the
initial three years. Every aspect of the ELT project will be examined,
from site selection to instrumentation. It is due to report in 2008 at
which time it will present a range of options to funding agencies.
The design study will provide the crucial technical information needed to
make tough decisions at the next stage. This will involve balancing the
size and design of the telescope against cost and time of first operation.
Building work is likely to start in the next decade and the telescope
could start scientific operations from 2015!
Professor Gerry Gilmore of the Institute of Astronomy Cambridge and Chair
of the EU OPTICON network, said: "Development of the ELT science case has
involved over 100 European astronomers, and 3 years of work. All this
happened because the astronomers want it: an ELT is overwhelmingly the
scientifically favoured next major astronomy development, with widespread
and strong community support. Turning this bottom-up support into a
science case and a design study proposal needed some resources, and a
trans-national support structure, both naturally available and provided by
the EC-funded OPTICON infrastructure network. This proves that European
astronomers are becoming a single community, and as such are now
international leaders in astronomy."
PPARC, the UK funding agency for astronomy, has earmarked £2million for
research and development of an ELT for the period to April 2008. £500,000
of this is to support the design study concentrating on UK strengths in
instrumentation and adaptive optics led by the UK ATC, in partnership with
Durham and Oxford Universities. The remainder of the programme is under
evaluation, but will concentrate on key technologies such as lightweight
and adaptive mirrors to enable the science goals to be met at an
affordable cost.
Colin Cunningham, Director of Technology Development at the UK ATC says,
"A telescope of 50 to 100m in diameter will have outstanding sensitivity
and resolution -- but to reach this performance at an affordable cost
requires us to address many engineering and technology challenges. The UK
will be at the heart of these efforts through its part in the EU-supported
ELT Design Study and our UK R&D programme which will bring together
academic and industrial partners in preparation for the design and
construction phase of this exciting project."
Science Highlights
Is the Earth unique?
The first planets outside the Solar System were only detected ten years
ago, using indirect methods of observation. Using an ELT, astronomers
believe that not only will they be able to directly detect the light from
extra-solar planets, but that they will be able to identify planets like
the Earth which have a parent star similar to the Sun and are in an orbit
within the 'habitable zone' (or 'goldilocks zone' -- not too hot and not
too cold ) where life as we know it could comfortably exist. They will
then be able to analyse the atmosphere of these planets for signs of life,
called biomarkers, such as water and oxygen features that would suggest
vegetation.
How did the various types of galaxies form?
Galaxies come in a variety of shapes and sizes, believed to reflect the
differing ways they form. To understand the evolution of a galaxy,
astronomers need to be able to study the individual stars it is formed
from, comparing their ages and composition.
Our own Milky Way galaxy and its nearest neighbours represent only a small
fraction of the diverse range of galaxy types seen throughout the Universe
-- to understand further away or denser galaxies, such as giant elliptical
galaxies, astronomers will require an ELT.
When did stars first start to shine?
At the moment astronomers cannot look far enough back in time to see the
first stars. Since light takes time to travel through space towards Earth,
the further away astronomers look, the further back in time the light was
emitted. While the first stars will not be visible even to an ELT, the
most extreme supernovae of these stars may just be. Since all massive
stars explode as supernovae, counting supernovae counts massive stars,
from which astronomers can deduce the total number of stars forming as a
function of time, the star formation history of the universe. Supernovae
are also used as standard candles to help measure the size of the
Universe. ELTs will study supernovae to much larger distances
(corresponding to earlier times) than currently possible. This is vital to
our understanding of the mysterious 'dark energy' that seems to make up
most of the Universe.
Notes for Editors
Science Case
The full science case is a 150 page document, to request a copy contact
Suzanne Howard, Telephone: +44(0)1223 766097, alternatively you can view
it online,
http://www-astro.physics.ox.ac.uk/~imh/ELT/
Opticon
OPTICON is a project funded by the European commission as part of its
Sixth Framework Programme (FP6). OPTICON's activities form part of the
EC's strategy to structure the European Research Area by bringing together
47 European groups with common objectives and interests.
A key objective is to structure the European community around plans for a
future European Extremely Large Telescope.
Images
Images of two ELT concepts are available.
For ESO's proposal for the 100m OWL, the Overwhelmingly Large Telescope,
see
http://www.eso.org/projects/owl/Gallery.html
For the Euro 50 concept, see
http://www.astro.lu.se/~torben/euro50/
The UK ATC
The UK Astronomy Technology Centre is located at the Royal Observatory,
Edinburgh (ROE). It is a scientific site belonging to the Particle Physics
and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC). The mission of the UK ATC is to
support the mission and strategic aims of PPARC and to help keep the UK at
the forefront of world astronomy by providing a UK focus for the design,
production and promotion of state of the art astronomical technology.
About PPARC,
http://www.pparc.ac.uk/Ap/intro.asp
Swindon, U.K.
Contacts
Julia Maddock
PPARC Press Office
Tel +44 1793 442094
Dr Isobel Hook
University of Oxford
Tel +44 7739 174455
Professor Gerry Gilmore
Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge
Colin Cunningham
Director, Technology Development
UK Astronomy Technology Centre
Tel: +44(0)131 668 8223
08 July 2005
European Astronomers set sights on Earth-like planets and the first
starlight
Astronomers from across Europe today (July 7th) took a step closer to
making their plans for a giant telescope a reality when they unveiled the
scientific case for an Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) -- a monster
telescope with a light capturing mirror of between 50 and 100 metres,
dwarfing all previous optical telescope facilities. The announcement was
made at a meeting in Dwingeloo, the Netherlands and initiates the design
phase of the project. Astronomers plan to use the ELT to search for
planets like the Earth in other star systems and to find out when the
first stars in the Universe began to shine.
The first step when selecting the specifications and design options for a
new telescope is for astronomers to establish the science that could be
achieved with the facility. The science case launched today will be used
in a Design Study funded by the European Union's Framework 6 Programme and
a Europe-wide consortium of partners, including industry, aimed at
evaluating critical technologies needed to build a giant telescope, and
led by the European Southern Observatory (ESO). The UK part of this 30M
Euro programme is led by the UK Astronomy Technology Centre (UK ATC) and
partly funded by the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council
(PPARC).
Roberto Gilmozzi, ESO's coordinator of the ELT Design Study said, "The ELT
Design Study initiative, a 31M Euro activity partially funded by the FP6,
shows the willingness of Europe to pursue a common path towards the
eventual construction of an ELT. It is a design independent study of
enabling technologies that brings together European institutes and
industry to define a palette of ELT 'building blocks' that indicate the
way in which the telescope design should evolve to take advantage of the
directions industry believes are most appropriate and cost effective."
Bigger is better
The power of optical telescopes is limited by the size of the mirror that
is used to collect light, which in turn determines how well they can
distinguish between faint objects -- the bigger the mirror, the fainter
the object that the telescope will be able to see. For example, a 100m
telescope with perfect compensation for atmospheric disturbances would be
able to separate two points on the moon two metres apart, compared with
95m apart for the Hubble Space Telescope.
The quest for bigger mirrors has pushed current technologies to their
limits. Some of the most advanced 8-10 metre telescopes now rely on
mirrors constructed from smaller mirror segments, controlled by computers
to act as a single large surface. These new techniques offer astronomers
the opportunity for an unprecedented step-up in size. A 100m telescope
would use a greater area of precision mirrors than has been made for all
the previous telescopes ever built!
Dr Isobel Hook from the University of Oxford has led the working group
producing the science case. She says, "An Extremely Large Telescope is a
very exciting prospect for astronomers. Something with a 50 or even 100
metre mirror could completely change our understanding of the Universe and
answer truly fundamental questions such as 'Is the Earth unique?' and 'How
did the first stars and galaxies form?'. We will have much more
information than ever before -- it will be a bit like being there when the
first telescopes were pointed at the sky."
The next step
The European ELT Design Study is a five year project to explore the
challenges of building an ELT, with most of the work being done in the
initial three years. Every aspect of the ELT project will be examined,
from site selection to instrumentation. It is due to report in 2008 at
which time it will present a range of options to funding agencies.
The design study will provide the crucial technical information needed to
make tough decisions at the next stage. This will involve balancing the
size and design of the telescope against cost and time of first operation.
Building work is likely to start in the next decade and the telescope
could start scientific operations from 2015!
Professor Gerry Gilmore of the Institute of Astronomy Cambridge and Chair
of the EU OPTICON network, said: "Development of the ELT science case has
involved over 100 European astronomers, and 3 years of work. All this
happened because the astronomers want it: an ELT is overwhelmingly the
scientifically favoured next major astronomy development, with widespread
and strong community support. Turning this bottom-up support into a
science case and a design study proposal needed some resources, and a
trans-national support structure, both naturally available and provided by
the EC-funded OPTICON infrastructure network. This proves that European
astronomers are becoming a single community, and as such are now
international leaders in astronomy."
PPARC, the UK funding agency for astronomy, has earmarked £2million for
research and development of an ELT for the period to April 2008. £500,000
of this is to support the design study concentrating on UK strengths in
instrumentation and adaptive optics led by the UK ATC, in partnership with
Durham and Oxford Universities. The remainder of the programme is under
evaluation, but will concentrate on key technologies such as lightweight
and adaptive mirrors to enable the science goals to be met at an
affordable cost.
Colin Cunningham, Director of Technology Development at the UK ATC says,
"A telescope of 50 to 100m in diameter will have outstanding sensitivity
and resolution -- but to reach this performance at an affordable cost
requires us to address many engineering and technology challenges. The UK
will be at the heart of these efforts through its part in the EU-supported
ELT Design Study and our UK R&D programme which will bring together
academic and industrial partners in preparation for the design and
construction phase of this exciting project."
Science Highlights
Is the Earth unique?
The first planets outside the Solar System were only detected ten years
ago, using indirect methods of observation. Using an ELT, astronomers
believe that not only will they be able to directly detect the light from
extra-solar planets, but that they will be able to identify planets like
the Earth which have a parent star similar to the Sun and are in an orbit
within the 'habitable zone' (or 'goldilocks zone' -- not too hot and not
too cold ) where life as we know it could comfortably exist. They will
then be able to analyse the atmosphere of these planets for signs of life,
called biomarkers, such as water and oxygen features that would suggest
vegetation.
How did the various types of galaxies form?
Galaxies come in a variety of shapes and sizes, believed to reflect the
differing ways they form. To understand the evolution of a galaxy,
astronomers need to be able to study the individual stars it is formed
from, comparing their ages and composition.
Our own Milky Way galaxy and its nearest neighbours represent only a small
fraction of the diverse range of galaxy types seen throughout the Universe
-- to understand further away or denser galaxies, such as giant elliptical
galaxies, astronomers will require an ELT.
When did stars first start to shine?
At the moment astronomers cannot look far enough back in time to see the
first stars. Since light takes time to travel through space towards Earth,
the further away astronomers look, the further back in time the light was
emitted. While the first stars will not be visible even to an ELT, the
most extreme supernovae of these stars may just be. Since all massive
stars explode as supernovae, counting supernovae counts massive stars,
from which astronomers can deduce the total number of stars forming as a
function of time, the star formation history of the universe. Supernovae
are also used as standard candles to help measure the size of the
Universe. ELTs will study supernovae to much larger distances
(corresponding to earlier times) than currently possible. This is vital to
our understanding of the mysterious 'dark energy' that seems to make up
most of the Universe.
Notes for Editors
Science Case
The full science case is a 150 page document, to request a copy contact
Suzanne Howard, Telephone: +44(0)1223 766097, alternatively you can view
it online,
http://www-astro.physics.ox.ac.uk/~imh/ELT/
Opticon
OPTICON is a project funded by the European commission as part of its
Sixth Framework Programme (FP6). OPTICON's activities form part of the
EC's strategy to structure the European Research Area by bringing together
47 European groups with common objectives and interests.
A key objective is to structure the European community around plans for a
future European Extremely Large Telescope.
Images
Images of two ELT concepts are available.
For ESO's proposal for the 100m OWL, the Overwhelmingly Large Telescope,
see
http://www.eso.org/projects/owl/Gallery.html
For the Euro 50 concept, see
http://www.astro.lu.se/~torben/euro50/
The UK ATC
The UK Astronomy Technology Centre is located at the Royal Observatory,
Edinburgh (ROE). It is a scientific site belonging to the Particle Physics
and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC). The mission of the UK ATC is to
support the mission and strategic aims of PPARC and to help keep the UK at
the forefront of world astronomy by providing a UK focus for the design,
production and promotion of state of the art astronomical technology.
About PPARC,
http://www.pparc.ac.uk/Ap/intro.asp