Monday, April 11, 2005
You Call That A Telescope? Now, That's A Telescope.
Turns out the future of astronomy might be right here on the ground with the development of Extremely Large Telescopes, so big they could fill a sports stadium. According to the story linked above, once built, an ELT would provide resolutions up to 40 times that of Hubble.
Space advocacy groups continue to invest time, money and PR in a crusade to save the Hubble ostensibly for the astronomy the space-based scope produces. Their position is based on a premise that Hubble will remain the best telescope astronomers could have. If an Earth-based ELT will be able to provide better images than Hubble the rationale for supporting a mission to save the space telescope disappears.
-tdr
Space advocacy groups continue to invest time, money and PR in a crusade to save the Hubble ostensibly for the astronomy the space-based scope produces. Their position is based on a premise that Hubble will remain the best telescope astronomers could have. If an Earth-based ELT will be able to provide better images than Hubble the rationale for supporting a mission to save the space telescope disappears.
-tdr
