Gazing up in wonder

As the largest optical telescope in the world, the ELT will allow scientists to dive further into our universe than ever before. The ELT’s 39-metre ‘eye on the sky’ will capture some of the clearest images ever taken, with a precision reaching 16 times that of the Hubble Space Telescope. Located 3046 m above sea level, on top of Cerro Armazones in Chile, the ELT’s construction has already begun. Once finished, the ELT will unravel countless mysteries of the Southern hemisphere night sky, observing distant exoplanets and nebulae, gazing into the heart of our own Milky Way and all the way out to the first galaxies in our Universe. This 3D rendering of the telescope shows how it will look as it operates during the night, with its laser guide star units.