The original telescope was very simple, consisting of very small lenses and placed in a hollow wooden tube with an arm length. However, 400 years later, the world's largest telescope was required to be built on a towering mountain range, with tons of steel supporting a huge mirror, so that scientists could observe a vast area in space. In June 2008, at a meeting of astronomers, Dava Sobel Beier declared that observing space through a telescope is one of the most outstanding achievements of human beings as a life form.
The following are the top ten astronomical telescopes in the world, and the photos were taken by the largest optical/infrared telescope on the ground.
1, the canary telescope is enlarged.
At present, the largest ground telescope in the world is the Canary Telescope, which is located on a small island in Canary Island, Palma, Spain. It is said that there are many large telescopes on Canary Island. The diameter of the telescope mirror is 10.4m, which consists of 36 customized hexagonal mirror components. Installation needs to be accurate to the range of 1 mm. It invested $654.38+75 million, which was jointly built by the Spanish government, two Mexican research institutions and the University of Florida.
Before installing the telescope components, each component was named after the gods in the folklore of the local island, or after the animals and plants on the island.
Photographs taken by a large telescope in Ghana.
Photographs taken by a large telescope in Ghana.
In August this year, the last batch of 36 mirror components of Canary Telescope were installed, but its first appearance was in July 2007, when only 12 mirror components were installed. The first star it observed was Tycho 120 508 1, which was very close to Polaris. Later, this large telescope captured more astronomical pictures of galaxies with interactive effects-UGC10923. The results of each shot show that the star formation area is enlarged and the exposure time is 50 seconds.
2. Keck telescope (Keck I&; 2)
keck telescope
The W.M. Keck telescope is located at the top of Monaque, with an altitude of 4,200 meters. II are two identical telescopes, each consisting of 36 mirror hexagonal components. The diameter of the whole mirror is10m, and the aperture of each mirror is1.8m, while the thickness is only10cm. Through the active optical support system, the mirror maintains extremely high accuracy. The telescope has three main equipments: near-infrared camera, high-resolution CCD detector and high-dispersion spectrometer.
Each telescope is eight stories high and weighs 300 tons. At present, the accuracy of astronomical observation can reach nanometer level. 1993 Keck-1 telescope was put into use for scientific observation, 1996 Keck-2 telescope was put into use. Astronomers who want to use the telescope 1-5 nights must obtain the approval of the Committee in advance and operate the telescope with the assistance of the Committee. Usually, astronomers collect data remotely from the astronomical observation headquarters in Waimea, Hawaii.
Photographs taken by Keck telescope
By eliminating the distortion in the atmosphere, the recent adjustment of the adaptive optical system has improved the ground-based astronomical observation ability of the Keck telescope, and the observation picture is 10 times clearer than before. For example, a composite image of an egg-shaped nebula with near infrared wavelength taken by Keck laser-guided star adaptive optical system is a protoplanetary nebula. In the last stage of its life, the dying star is falling off the outermost layer of the nebula. When more and more substances on the surface of a star begin to fall off, its surface becomes hotter, which ionizes ultraviolet light into gas, so that it can be observed with a telescope. Planets can form in this area after thousands of years.
3. Large telescopes in southern Africa
The South African Telescope, or SALT for short, is located on the top of a hill in South Africa. It is the largest single optical telescope in the southern hemisphere. It consists of 9 1 mirror hexagonal components, and the actual effective diameter of the whole mirror is 10 meter. This telescope can detect the faint light in the distance of the moon, such as candlelight, and it was first put into use in 2005. Astronomers from South Africa, the United States, Germany, Poland, Britain and New Zealand have all used large telescopes in southern Africa.
A photo taken by a large telescope in South Africa.
Does this picture show a "cosmic nirvana phoenix"? In fact, this is a scene where three galaxies collide and merge. Previously, astronomers called this picture "Big Bird" and decided that it was just a collision and merger of two galaxies. Later, the latest observation of a large telescope in southern Africa showed that this was the result of the collision of three galaxies, and there was a clear area of separated matter in the head of Big Bird. In order to construct this picture, a large telescope in South Africa used its spectrograph to provide valuable observation data to the Telescope Association. A spectrograph can decompose light into structural colors. This may be used to study the physical conditions of galaxies and the details of the motion paths of three galaxies when they collide. The separation speed of interstellar matter in some areas of "Big Bird" exceeds 400 km/s, so it is very rare to observe such high-speed interstellar matter in merged galaxies.
4. Hobby-Abel telescope
The Hobby-Abele telescope, or HET for short, is located in Fovax Mountain, Texas, USA. It is very similar to the large telescope in southern Africa. It consists of 9 1 mirror hexagonal assemblies, each with a diameter of 1 m, and the motor is controlled by a small computer for continuous sequencing. The overall mirror diameter can reach 1 1 m, and the practical use is only 9.2 m. Telescopes can detect cosmic rays that are 1 100 million times darker than those observed by human naked eyes. It is designed and built in a unique way, which enables it to absorb large-scale light, especially spectrometer, and its cost is very low.
Photos taken by Hobby-Abel telescope, photos taken by Hobby-Abel telescope.
Hobby-Abele telescope can observe extrasolar planets and gamma ray bursts. At present, it is used to observe the mysterious matter of the universe-dark energy that humans can't see. In the three-year special project "Hetedex" (dark energy experiment of Hobby-Abele telescope), the telescope can observe the distance of more than 65.438+0 billion light years, thus making it possible to draw the largest map of the universe so far. This map of the universe allows astronomers to measure the expansion speed of the universe in different periods, hoping to reveal the role of dark energy in different cosmic times. At present, the telescope will search and observe the cosmic region overlapping with the Big Dipper.
5. Large binoculars
Large binoculars
Large binoculars, referred to as LBT, consist of two telescopes with a diameter of 8.4, which are closely adjacent to each other. They can work alone, and when combined together, they are like a bigger telescope. The first telescope was set up on the top of Graham Mountain in Arizona in 2004, and the second telescope was installed in 2005. It was not until the beginning of this year that the two telescopes realized joint observation.
A photograph taken with a telescope.
In June, 5438+10, the first photograph was taken by large binoculars, showing the NGC 2770 galaxy at a distance of/kloc-0.02 million light years from the earth. This is actually a picture of Zhang Hecheng: the same scene was shot with ultraviolet light and green light, respectively, thus showing the activity of star formation in this area, while the red light area shows older and colder stars. These three pictures together form a beautiful picture, which can show the different characteristics of the stars at the same time. 6. Pleiades telescope
As shown, the Pleiades telescope was transported to the middle of Mauna Kea Mountain in Hawaii. The diameter of the telescope is 8.2 meters. It is an optical/visible infrared telescope with three characteristics: first, the mirror is thin, and high imaging quality is obtained through active optics and adaptive optics; Second, high-precision tracking can be realized; Thirdly, a cylindrical observation room is adopted to automatically control ventilation and air filters, so as to eliminate thermal turbulence to the best state. This kind of telescope adopts closely arranged trusses, which can keep the main frame and the auxiliary frame parallel when moving.
You can share the observation data of other telescopes with Keck Observatory. It has the largest telescope lens in the world today, and the right to use it belongs to the National Observatory of Japan, but it can be used by astronomers all over the world. The name of the telescope comes from the Pleiades, a group of young stars. The first scientific observation was made in 1999.
Photographs taken by the Pleiades telescope
This is a clear infrared image of Zhang Huali in the S 106 star-forming region taken by the Pleiades Cluster Telescope, which is 2000 light years away from the Earth. The star with the largest mass in the center of this region is called IRS4, which has a history of 1 10,000 years and its mass is 20 times that of the sun. In addition, astronomers also found that there are many stars in this region with lower mass than Gemini, and they are probably brown dwarfs.
7. European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope Interferometer
It consists of four 8.2m-caliber telescopes located on Cerro-Palana Mountain in Chile, which can operate independently or form a super-large telescope interferometer. Very large telescopes are equipped with instruments that can provide detailed observation data and capture the movement changes of stars in a billionth of a second. This joint astronomical observation can detect cosmic rays 4 billion times darker than human visible light.
Photographs taken by the interferometer of the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope.
Very large telescopes help astronomers observe the cosmic "doughnut" structure as shown in the figure, which is considered to be a supermassive black hole at the center of many galaxies. Usually, the area near the black hole is very bright, which is several orders of magnitude higher than other parts of the Milky Way. Indirect evidence tells astronomers that this is a thick doughnut-shaped gas and dust structure, surrounding a black hole. No astronomer has directly observed the structure of this star before. In 2003, astronomers used a very large telescope to reveal the mystery of doughnut structure in the center of NGC 1068 galaxy.
8. Gemini telescope
Gemini telescope is not two closely adjacent telescopes, but two 8-meter optical/infrared telescopes, which are located at the two best astronomical observation points in the eastern and western hemispheres respectively. The telescope in the northern hemisphere cooperates with other telescopes on Mount Monaque, and the telescope in the southern hemisphere is located on Mount Cerro-Palana in Chile. Telescopes are placed in two hemispheres respectively, which is convenient for all-weather systematic observation. The primary mirror is controlled by active optics, and the secondary mirror is used as a tilt mirror for rapid correction. Through the adaptive optical system, the infrared region will approach the diffraction limit.
Photos taken by Gemini telescope
This photo was taken on September 15 this year, which left a deep impression on astronomers. This may be the first photo of a planet orbiting another star, and astronomers have not yet finally determined whether this star actually orbits a young sun-like star. If it were a planet, it would be a giant planet in the planetary family, with 8 times the mass of Jupiter. The distance between Neptune and the star is 330 times that between the earth and the sun. In contrast, Neptune, the farthest from the sun in the solar system, is only 30 times the distance between the earth and the sun.
9. Multi-mirror telescope
The Multiple mirror telescope (MMT) used six small mirrors before installing the main mirror. This 6.5-meter-diameter primary mirror adopts a special lightweight honeycomb design. Multi-mirror telescope is an art-class building, without the dome structure of traditional observatory. This unique shape makes the wall and top of the observatory organically combined with the telescope, which can quickly cool the telescope, thus improving the observation efficiency. At present, the multi-mirror telescope is located on Hopkins Mountain in Tucson, Arizona, USA.
Photos taken by a multi-mirror telescope, photos taken by a multi-mirror telescope.
In the Milky Way, it is difficult to observe the structure of the Milky Way, but the multi-mirror telescope (MMT) can help us to better observe the "twin brother" of the Milky Way-the Triangle Galaxy (M33). Although this galaxy looks very much like the Milky Way, it is actually smaller. The Milky Way has 200 billion stars, while the triangle galaxy has only100-400 billion stars. Astronomers use multi-mirror telescopes to construct three-dimensional maps of galaxies, which is conducive to searching for extrasolar planets and detecting ancient quasars when the universe is only one tenth of its life.
10, Magellan I &；; Magellan I&II telescope; II telescope
Magellan telescope is a new catamaran telescope. The two telescopes are 200 feet apart, high in Chile's Atacama desert. The mirror with a diameter of 6.5 meters floats on the high-pressure oil film, and the friction is very small. Children can push this 150 ton telescope. But no astronomer wants the mirror to slide, so the driving cylinder and the driving plane can form a pressure of 654.38+00000 pounds to keep the mirror stable.
Photographs taken by Magellan telescope
Eight high-definition images of Magellan telescope combined this dazzling picture, which is called Raytheon helmet. In 2003, it was shot by Inamori Magellan area camera and spectral camera, equipped with eight 8-megapixel CCD detectors. The formation of clouds is the result of the serious loss of mass of evolved massive stars. As a Wolf-Rayet star, its surface temperature can reach 25,000-50,000 Kelvin.