In Chile’s dry Atacama desert, stargazers are scanning the clear night time skies to detect the existence of life on different planets and research so-called ‘dark energy,’ a mysterious cosmic power considered driving the accelerating growth of the universe.
Central to the race to look into distant worlds is the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), a $1.8 billion complicated being constructed on the Las Campanas observatory and which could have a decision 10 instances greater than the Hubble house telescope. The telescope, anticipated to start operation by the tip of the last decade, will compete with the European Southern Observatory’s Extremely Large Telescope – positioned additional north in the identical desert – in addition to the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) being inbuilt Hawaii.
“This new generation of giant telescopes is aimed precisely at detecting life on other planets and to determine the origin of dark energy,” mentioned Leopoldo Infante, director of the Las Campanas observatory. “It’s a race by these three groups for who makes it first and who makes the first discovery.”
Infante mentioned the brand new large telescope would be capable to detect natural molecules within the environment of distant planets. “That is the expectation,” he mentioned. “And whoever detects life on another planet will win the Nobel Prize, I assure you.”
The different prize is learning darkish power – separate from the equally enigmatic darkish matter – which is taken into account to be a property of house and is driving the universe’s accelerated growth. It makes up an enormous quantity of the universe, however stays largely an unsolved thriller.
“There is an energy that is causing the universe to expand, but also to accelerate that expansion,” mentioned Infante, including scientists knew that this power should exist, although they didn’t perceive its origin. “So this telescope is designed to be able to study precisely what is called the dark energy of the universe, to be able to understand physically what that energy is and where that energy comes from.” — Reuters
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