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European Extremely Large Telescope-Artwork
author: ESO/Novapix
reference: o-elt90-00002
Image Size 300 DPI: 51 * 34 cm
With a 42-m diameter primary mirror, the present baseline, its total rotating mass is 5500 tons. The two platforms on each side of the structure hold large instruments. The telescope features a novel, innovative design, based on 5 mirrors. The primary 42-m mirror is composed of 906 segments, each 1.45 m wide, while the secondary mirror is as large as 6 m in diameter. A tertiary mirror, 4.2 m in diameter, relays the light to the adaptive optics system, composed of two mirrors: a 2.5-m mirror supported by 5000 or more actuators so as to be able to distort its own shape a thousand times per second, and one 2.7 m in diameter that allows for the final image corrections. This five mirror approach results in an exceptional image quality, with no significant aberrations in the field of view.
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