Page 36 - Life beyond the Karman

This was used for generating radar maps of Mars ahead of the Viking lander missions, as well as to investigate beneath the clouds of Venus and locate ice on Mercury. The telescope at the Arecibo Observatory collapsed in 2020, and the National Science Foundation (NSF) proclaimed in October 2022 that after six decades of operation the site will no longer be used as an observatory. Instead, it will be converted into an educational centre.
Southern African Large Telescope (SALT)
The Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) is a 9.2-metre optical telescope that was primarily developed for spectroscopy. With 91 hexagonal mirror segments totalling 11.1 by 9.8 metres in size, each segment has an engraved diameter of one metre. Its effective aperture is only 9.2 metres.
The SALT is situated at the South African Astronomical Observatory field station near the small town of Sutherland, a semi-desert region of the Karoo in the Northern Cape province, about 400 km from Cape Town. It is a facility of the South African Astronomical Observatory, the national optical observatory of South Africa.
The SALT is the largest optical telescope in the southern hemisphere. Perched on a mountaintop 1837 metres above sea level, it provides spectroscopic and polarimetric analysis as well as imaging of radiation from celestial objects beyond the reach of telescopes in the northern hemisphere.
ATACAMA LARGE MILLIMETRE ARRAY (ALMA)
ALMA is located in Chile’s Atacama Desert and is made up of 66 radio telescopes, 54 of which are 39.4 feet (12 metres) in diameter, with the other 12 only 23 feet (seven metres). These antennae, together known as an astronomical interferometer, operate together to produce a single image. When this array is utilised in various combinations, the range of visibility changes. This is necessary to locate the desired galactic regions.
ALMA made a ground-breaking discovery: the farthest distant oxygen in space. This is a record that the telescopes have broken multiple times. The farthest distant oxygen discovery in space was 13.28 billion light-years away, as evidenced by ALMA in 2018. As the universe expanded, the infrared light released by this oxygen was transformed into microwaves. The signal originated from ionised oxygen in the galaxy MACS1149-JD1.
GRAN TELESCOPIO CANARIAS (GTC)
The Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) is a 10.4-metre optical- infrared telescope with a segmented primary mirror. It is situated in one of the best astronomical sites in the Northern Hemisphere: The Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos in Spain (ORM, La Palma, Canary Islands). The GTC is a Spanish programme spearheaded by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias.
The purpose of this telescope is to allow astronomers to observe the universe’s most distant and pale cosmic bodies. The GTC telescope’s software architecture is made up of a series of highly interconnected systems that are deployed via networks and organised in a layered architecture. This design gives scientists access to various distributed services, regardless of their location.
Royal Observatory Greenwich, London, United Kingdom
The Royal Observatory at Greenwich houses the world’s Prime Meridian as well as London’s leading planetarium. It has played an important role in navigation and astronomy throughout history, and its placement on the prime meridian inspired the creation of Greenwich Mean Time. The Royal Observatory at Greenwich closed in October 1998. It continues to hold a variety of educational activities and exhibitions, including astronomy classes and astrophotography workshops.
Another well-known telescope in the UK is the James Gregory Telescope, which is the largest operational optical telescope in the country and is still used for scientific study at the School of Physics and Astronomy. The James Gregory Telescope is the result of two decades of planning and construction. Almost all of the telescope’s components were built in Scotland. The telescope has been in operation for almost 50 years.
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LIFE BEYOND THE KÁRMÁN LINE - OUTER SPACE