Pasadena Company Gets $17.5 Million from National Science Foundation for Giant Magellan Telescope in Chile

A Pasadena-based company on a mission to build one of the world’s most powerful telescopes has been awarded a grant of $17.5 million from the National Science Foundation for further development of the massive instrument, the company announced Thursday.

Once operational, the Giant Magellan Telescope, being constructed by the GMTO Corp. under the clear skies at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, promises to provide images of the universe 10 times sharper than those of the famed Hubble Space Telescope, GMTO said in a written statement.

The grant will be used “ to accelerate the prototyping and testing of some of the most powerful optical and infrared technologies ever engineered,” the statement said. “These crucial advancements for the Giant Magellan Telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile will allow astronomers to see farther into space with more detail than any other optical telescope before.”

The telescope will be one of the first in a new generation of telescopes designed to be roughly three times larger than any other ground-based telescope on Earth, according to GMTO. It will include seven of the largest mirrors ever made, at 8.4 meters in diameter each.

GMTO Corp. President Robert Shelton said the company was “honored” to receive its first grant from the NSF.

“It is a giant step toward realizing the GMT’s scientific goals and the profound impact the GMT will have on the future of human knowledge,” he said.

Building one of the most precise optical instruments ever made comes with its own unique set of challenges, explained GMTO Project Manager James Fanson. All seven of the telescope’s giant mirrors must be “phased” together to work as one.

“Image quality on any telescope starts with the primary mirror,” he said. “The Giant Magellan Telescope’s primary mirror comprises seven 8.4-meter mirror segments. To achieve diffraction-limited imaging, we have to be able to phase these primary mirror segments so that they behave as a monolithic mirror.”

“Once phased, we must then correct for Earth’s turbulent atmospheric distortion,” Fanson added.

The grant will also fund the development of the “Adaptive Secondary Mirror” system, which is key to properly phase the telescope’s massive mirrors.

“Our seven Adaptive Secondary Mirrors take this technology to the next step,” Fanson said. “No one has attempted to use seven ASMs before the Giant Magellan Telescope. They are probably the most advanced tech we have on the telescope, and their success is a top priority. We need to test and validate their performance early on in the project.”

The telescope is scheduled to begin operation in 2029.

A primary goal of the telescope is to hunt for faint signs of life, or “biosignatures,” on distant planets orbiting other stars, according to GMTO.

U.S. and international scientists will use it to “carry out transformational research that answers some of humanity’s most pressing questions, such as are we alone in the universe and where did we come from,” the GMTO statement said.

More information on the Giant Magellan Telescope is available on the GMTO Corp.’s website at gmto.org.