TUCSON, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- University of Arizona astronomers say they've begun a major step toward building a telescope that will be one of the most powerful in the world.
Work began this week to produce the second of seven enormous mirrors for the Giant Magellan Telescope, intended to begin astronomical observations from a mountaintop in Chile in 2019, The Arizona Republic reported Tuesday.
The Arizona scientists say they've begun heating 21 tons of glass at a university laboratory in Tucson to create the mirror.
"It's a major milestone in that it tells you the project is for real and going forward," Peter Strittmatter, director of Steward Observatory where the university's mirror lab is located, said.
The entire process of creating a mirror, from casting to grinding to polishing, can take several years; the first mirror has been more than six years in the making and is nearly finished.
The rest of the mirrors are expected to be produced much faster, at a rate of about three years each, the scientists said.
The university's facility specializes in mirrors that are up to 27 feet in diameter, among the largest in the world.
The cost for such a large mirror ranges from $12 million to $20 million, depending on the mirror's complexity, Strittmatter said.
The seven mirrors will enable the Giant Magellan Telescope to capture images 10 times sharper than the Hubble Space Telescope, the Arizona scientists said.
