Extremely Large Telescope


The Extremely Large Telescope is an astronomical observatory currently under construction. When completed, it is planned to be the world's largest optical/near-infrared extremely large telescope. Part of the European Southern Observatory agency, it is located on top of Cerro Armazones in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. The design consists of a reflecting telescope with a segmented primary mirror and a diameter secondary mirror, and will be supported by adaptive optics, eight laser guide star units and multiple large science instruments. The observatory aims to gather 100 million times more light than the human eye, 13 times more light than the largest optical telescopes existing in 2014, and be able to correct for atmospheric distortion. It has around 256 times the light gathering area of the Hubble Space Telescope and, according to the ELT's specifications, would provide images 16 times sharper than those from Hubble. The project was originally called the European Extremely Large Telescope, but the name was shortened in 2017.
The ELT is intended to advance astrophysical knowledge by enabling detailed studies of planets around other stars, the first galaxies in the Universe, supermassive black holes, and the nature of the Universe's dark sector, and to detect water and organic molecules in protoplanetary disks around other stars. The facility is expected to take 11 years to construct.
On 11 June 2012, the ESO Council approved the ELT programme's plans to begin civil works at the telescope site, with construction of the telescope itself pending final agreement with governments of some member states. Construction work on the ELT site started in June 2014. By December 2014, ESO had secured over 90% of the total funding and authorized construction of the telescope to start, which will cost around one billion euros for the first construction phase. The first stone of the telescope was ceremonially laid on 26 May 2017, initiating the construction of the dome's main structure and telescope, with first light being planned for 2025.

History

On 26 April 2010, the European Southern Observatory Council selected Cerro Armazones, Chile, as the baseline site for the planned ELT. Other sites that were under discussion included Cerro Macon, Salta, in Argentina; Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, on the Canary Islands; and sites in North Africa, Morocco, and Antarctica.
Early designs included a segmented primary mirror with a diameter of and an area of about, with a secondary mirror with a diameter of. However, in 2011 a proposal was put forward to reduce its size by 13% to 978 m2, for a diameter primary mirror and a diameter secondary mirror. It reduced projected costs from 1.275 billion to 1.055 billion euros and should allow the telescope to be finished sooner. The smaller secondary is a particularly important change; places it within the capabilities of multiple manufacturers, and the lighter mirror unit avoids the need for high-strength materials in the secondary mirror support spider.
ESO's Director General commented in a 2011 press release that "With the new E-ELT design we can still satisfy the bold science goals and also ensure that the construction can be completed in only 10–11 years." The ESO Council endorsed the revised baseline design in June 2011 and expected a construction proposal for approval in December 2011. Funding was subsequently included in the 2012 budget for initial work to begin in early 2012. The project received preliminary approval in June 2012. ESO approved the start of construction in December 2014, with over 90% funding of the nominal budget secured.
The design phase of the 5-mirror anastigmat was fully funded within the ESO budget. With the 2011 changes in the baseline design, in 2017 the construction cost was estimated to be €1.15 billion. As of 2014, the start of operations was planned for 2024. Actual construction officially began in early 2017.

Planning

ESO focused on the current design after a feasibility study concluded the proposed diameter, Overwhelmingly Large Telescope, would cost €1.5 billion, and be too complex. Both current fabrication technology and road transportation constraints limit single mirrors to being roughly per piece. The next-largest telescopes currently in use are the Keck Telescopes, the Gran Telescopio Canarias and the Southern African Large Telescope, which each use small hexagonal mirrors fitted together to make a composite mirror slightly over across. The ELT uses a similar design, as well as techniques to work around atmospheric distortion of incoming light, known as adaptive optics.
A 40-metre-class mirror will allow the study of the atmospheres of extrasolar planets. The ELT is the highest priority in the European planning activities for research infrastructures, such as the Astronet Science Vision and Infrastructure Roadmap and the ESFRI Roadmap. The telescope underwent a Phase B study in 2014 that included "contracts with industry to design and manufacture prototypes of key elements like the primary mirror segments, the adaptive fourth mirror or the mechanical structure concept studies for eight instruments".

Design

The ELT will use a novel design with a total of five mirrors. The first three mirrors are curved, and form a three mirror anastigmat design for excellent image quality over the 10 arcminute field of view. The fourth and fifth mirrors are flat, and provide adaptive optics correction for atmospheric distortions, and tip-tilt correction for image stabilisation. The fourth and fifth mirrors also send the light sideways to one of the Nasmyth focal stations at either side of the telescope structure, allowing multiple large instruments to be simultaneously mounted.

ELT mirror and sensors contracts

Primary mirror

The surface of the 39-metre primary mirror will be composed of 798 hexagonal segments, each measuring approximately 1.4 metres across and with 50 mm thickness. Each working day, two segments will be re-coated and replaced to ensure the mirror is always clean and highly reflective.
Edge sensors constantly measure the relative positions of the primary mirror segments and their neighbours. 2394 position actuators use this information to support the system, keeping the overall surface shape unchanged against deformations caused by external factors such as wind, temperature changes or vibrations.
In January 2017, ESO awarded the contract for the fabrication of the 4608 edge sensors to the FAMES consortium, which is composed of Fogale and Micro-Epsilon. These sensors can measure relative positions to an accuracy of a few nanometres, the most accurate ever used in a telescope.
In May 2017, ESO awarded two additional contracts. One was awarded to Schott AG who will manufacture the blanks of the 798 segments, as well as an additional 133 segments as part of a maintenance set, allowing for the segments to be removed, replaced and cleaned on a rotating basis once the ELT is in operation. The mirror will be cast from the same low-expansion ceramic Zerodur as the existing Very Large Telescope mirrors in Chile.
The other contract was awarded to the French company, Safran Reosc, a subsidiary of Safran Electronics & Defense. They will receive the mirror blanks from Schott, and polish one mirror segment per day to meet the 7-year deadline. During this process, each segment will be polished until it has no surface irregularity greater than 7.5 nm RMS. Afterwards, Safran Reosc will then mount, test, and complete all optical testing before delivery. This is the second largest contract for the ELT construction and the third-largest contract ESO has ever signed.
The segment support system units for the primary mirror are designed and produced by CESA and VDL. The contracts signed with ESO also include the delivery of detailed and complete instructions and engineering drawings for their production. Additionally, they include the development of the procedures required to integrate the supports with the ELT glass segments; to handle and transport the segment assemblies; and to operate and maintain them.

Secondary mirror

Making the secondary mirror is a major challenge as it is highly convex, and aspheric. It is also very large; at 4.2 metres in diameter and weighing 3.5 tonnes, it will be the largest secondary mirror ever employed on a telescope and the largest convex mirror ever produced.
In January 2017, ESO awarded a contract for the mirror blank to Schott AG, who will manufacture it of Zerodur.
Complex support cells are also necessary to ensure the flexible secondary and tertiary mirrors retain their correct shape and position; these support cells will be provided by SENER.
The pre-formed glass-ceramic blank of the secondary mirror will then be polished, and tested by Safran Reosc. The mirror will be shaped and polished to a precision of 15 nanometres over the optical surface.

Tertiary mirror

The 3.8-metre concave tertiary mirror, also cast from Zerodur, will be an unusual feature of the telescope. Most current large telescopes, including the VLT and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, use just two curved mirrors to form an image. In these cases, a small, flat tertiary mirror is sometimes introduced to divert the light to a convenient focus. However, in the ELT the tertiary mirror also has a curved surface, as the use of three mirrors delivers a better final image quality over a larger field of view than would be possible with a two-mirror design.

Quaternary mirror

The 2.4-metre quaternary mirror is a flat adaptive mirror, and only 2 millimetres thick. With up to 8000 actuators, the surface can be readjusted at very high time frequencies. The deformable mirror will be the largest adaptive mirror ever made, and consists of six component petals, control systems, and voice-coil actuators. The image distortion caused by the turbulence of the Earth's atmosphere can be corrected in real time, as well as deformations caused by the wind upon the main telescope. The ELT's adaptive optics system will provide an improvement of about a factor of 500 in the resolution, compared to the best seeing conditions achieved so far without adaptive optics.
The AdOptica consortium, partnered with INAF as subcontractors, are responsible for the design and manufacture of the quaternary mirror, which is to be shipped to Chile by the end of 2022. Safran Reosc will manufacture the mirror shells, and also polish them.

ELT dome and structure

Dome construction

The ELT dome will have a height of nearly 74 metres from the ground and a diameter of 86 metres, making it the largest dome ever built for a telescope. The dome will have a total mass of around 5000 tonnes, and the telescope mounting and tube structure will have a total moving mass of around 3700 tonnes.
For the observing slit, two main designs were under study: one with two sets of nested doors, and the current baseline design, i.e. a single pair of large sliding doors. This pair of doors has a total width of 45.3 m.
ESO signed a contract for its construction, together with the main structure of the telescopes, with the Italian ACe Consortium, consisting of Astaldi and and the nominated subcontractor, Italy's EIE Group. The signature ceremony took place on 25 May 2016 at ESO's Headquarters in Garching bei München, Germany.
The dome is to provide needed protection to the telescope in inclement weather and during the day. A number of concepts for the dome were evaluated. The baseline concept for the 40m-class ELT dome is a nearly hemispherical dome, rotating atop a concrete pier, with curved laterally-opening doors. This is a re-optimisation from the previous design, aimed at reducing the costs, and it is being revalidated to be ready for construction.
One year after signing the contract, and after the laying of the first stone ceremony in May 2017, the site was handed over to ACe, signifying the beginning of the construction of the dome's main structure.

Astronomical performance

In terms of astronomical performance the dome is required to be able to track about the 1-degree zenithal avoidance locus as well as preset to a new target within 5 minutes. This requires the dome to be able to accelerate and move at angular speeds of 2 degrees/s.
The dome is designed to allow complete freedom to the telescope so that it can position itself whether it is opened or closed. It will also permit observations from the zenith down to 20 degrees from the horizon.

Windscreen

With such a large opening, the ELT dome requires the presence of a windscreen to protect the telescope's mirrors, from direct exposure to the wind. The baseline design of the windscreen minimises the volume required to house it. Two spherical blades, either side of the observing slit doors, slide in front of the telescope aperture to restrict the wind.

Ventilation and air-conditioning

The dome design ensures that the dome provides sufficient ventilation for the telescope not to be limited by dome seeing. For this the dome is also equipped with louvers, whereby the windscreen is designed to allow them to fulfill their function.
Computational fluid dynamic simulations and wind tunnel work are being carried out to study the airflow in and around the dome, as well as the effectiveness of the dome and windscreen in protecting the telescope.
Besides being designed for water-tightness, air-tightness is also one of the requirements as it is critical to minimise the air-conditioning load. The air-conditioning of the dome is necessary not only to thermally prepare the telescope for the forthcoming night but also in order to keep the telescope optics clean.
The air-conditioning of the telescope during the day is critical and the current specifications permit the dome to cool the telescope and internal volume by 10 °C over 12 hours.

Science goals

The ELT will search for extrasolar planets – planets orbiting other stars. This will include not only the discovery of planets down to Earth-like masses through indirect measurements of the wobbling motion of stars perturbed by the planets that orbit them, but also the direct imaging of larger planets and possibly even the characterisation of their atmospheres. The telescope will attempt to image Earthlike exoplanets, which may be possible.
Furthermore, the ELT's suite of instruments will allow astronomers to probe the earliest stages of the formation of planetary systems and to detect water and organic molecules in protoplanetary discs around stars in the making. Thus, the ELT will answer fundamental questions regarding planet formation and evolution.
By probing the most distant objects the ELT will provide clues to understanding the formation of the first objects that formed: primordial stars, primordial galaxies and black holes and their relationships. Studies of extreme objects like black holes will benefit from the power of the ELT to gain more insight into time-dependent phenomena linked with the various processes at play around compact objects.
The ELT is designed to make detailed studies of the first galaxies and to follow their evolution through cosmic time. Observations of these early galaxies with the ELT will give clues that will help understand how these objects form and evolve. In addition, the ELT will be a unique tool for making an inventory of the changing content of the various elements in the Universe with time, and to understand star formation history in galaxies.
One of the goals of the ELT is the possibility of making a direct measurement of the acceleration of the Universe's expansion. Such a measurement would have a major impact on our understanding of the Universe. The ELT will also search for possible variations in the fundamental physical constants with time. An unambiguous detection of such variations would have far-reaching consequences for our comprehension of the general laws of physics.

Instrumentation

The telescope will have several science instruments. It will be possible to switch from one instrument to another within minutes. The telescope and dome will also be able to change positions on the sky and start a new observation in a very short time.
From the variety of instrument concepts studied, three instruments are under construction; MICADO, HARMONI and METIS, along with the adaptive optics system MAORY.
Additionally, two further instruments are currently being studied:
One of the largest optical telescopes operating today is the Gran Telescopio Canarias, with a 10.4 m aperture and a light-collecting area of 74 m2. Other planned extremely large telescopes include the 25 m/368 m2 Giant Magellan Telescope and 30 m/655 m2 Thirty Meter Telescope, which are also targeting the beginning of the 2020 decade for completion. These other two telescopes roughly belong to the same next generation of optical ground-based telescopes. Each design is much larger than previous telescopes. Even with the reduction in size to 39.3 m, the ELT is significantly larger than both other planned extremely large telescopes. It has the aim of observing the Universe in greater detail than the Hubble Space Telescope by taking images 15 times sharper, although it is designed to be complementary to space telescopes, which typically have very limited observing time available. The ELT's 4.2-metre secondary mirror is the same size as the primary mirror on the William Herschel Telescope, the second largest optical telescope in Europe.
The ELT under ideal conditions has an angular resolution of 0.005 arcsecond which corresponds to separating two light sources 1 AU apart from 200 pc distance. At 0.03 arcseconds, the contrast is expected to be 108, sufficient to search for exoplanets. The unaided human eye has an angular resolution of 1 arcminute which corresponds to separating two light sources 30 cm apart from 1 km distance.

Stills

The images below show artistic renderings of the ELT and were produced by ESO.

Video

Comparable instruments