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World’s Biggest Telescope, 3D-Printed Doritos, and a Supersonic Jet
🕑 Added 2023-07-20 21:10:05 +0000 UTCWorld’s Biggest Telescope Half Completed
A webcam image, taken in late June 2023, of the construction site of ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope at Cerro Armazones, in Chile's Atacama Desert. Credits: ESO
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) just announced that they are halfway completed with construction on the imaginatively named Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) that, once completed, will be the biggest telescope on Earth. The ELT will scan the night skies in the optical and near-infrared range at unprecedented resolution. One of its most interesting missions is, in my totally unbiased opinion, to collect more precise measurements of rotation curves of distant galaxies, which will give us new opportunities to test modified gravity and hopefully differentiate it from dark matter. Construction on the ELT began in 2014; the telescope is expected to begin operations in 2028.
Doritos in a CT Scanner
A Dorito, a Cheeto, and a Ruffle. Original (top), 3D-printed duplicate (bottom). Credits: Jon Bruner
In case you’ve ever wondered what Doritos do before you’ve opened the bag, we now have an answer to this pressing question thanks to scientists at the tech company Lumafield. They put a Doritos bag into an industrial X-ray scanner. They then used the scans to create 3D models of the bag’s interior, 3D printed the Doritos, and coloured them – only to have the office cleaner throw the models into the compost because they looked so realistic. I’m not sure why they did what they did, but it sure sounds like fun. Full story here.
NASA’s Quiet Supersonic Jet Ready for First Tests
NASA’s X-59 jet. Credits: Lockheed Martin
NASA recently announced that their X-59 jet will move forward to first ground tests. IT’s mission is to explore the potential of supersonic flight with advanced noise-reduction technologies, such as novel wing shapes. If the tests go well, the technology could pave the way to an era of supersonic flying. Press release here.
Comments
Robert Clark
Two questions: first, the current # of mirrors on ELT is 800. Only adding 41 more brings the diameter from 39 to 40 meters. You know there’s a considerable psychological effect of that first digit, reason why retailers like pricing their products at $39.99 rather than $40. Having the telescope size at 40 meters puts its size in good stead in relation to 100 meter OWL telescope. And second, could they get the telescope going at an intermediate size say at 15 meters before being complete? That should still give quite important observational capability.
The name of the telescope vis. acronyms making words is terribly disappointing.
