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■智利將會興建類似圖中的巨型望遠鏡，進一步揭開宇宙的奧秘。 資料圖片
智利成功取得興建全球最大望遠鏡的權利。「歐洲極大望遠鏡」(ELT)將於2018年開始運作，另一個主要競爭對手是西非對開海域的西班牙加那利群島拉帕爾馬。
跨政府天文研究機構歐洲南方天文台(ESO)已在智利北部的阿塔卡馬沙漠擁有3個觀星設施，ESO宣布，這將是智利的一個重要里程碑。
支持者表示，高3,060米的阿瑪遜斯山每年有320晚萬里無雲，非常適合興建這個價值9億7千萬歐元的巨型望遠鏡。
ESO希望新的望遠鏡可如400年前的伽利略望遠鏡一樣具革命性。伽利略當年利用望遠鏡斷定地球圍繞太陽公轉。ESO總幹事澤烏表示：「這讓我們可完成目標宏大的基礎設計，增進天文知識。」
鏡片直徑大如游泳池
這個巨型望遠鏡將會備有一塊直徑42米的鏡片，大如一個標準奧運游泳池，讓天文學家可透過光學與近紅外線儀器，窺探天際奧秘。
ESO在阿塔卡馬荒漠上的3個設施，包括在巴拉納鎮的「甚大望遠鏡」(VLT)，它是現時歐洲營運的最頂尖望遠鏡。根據ESO的資料，VLT去年捕捉到距離宇宙最遠、最古老的物體，可追溯至130億年前宇宙大爆炸後的時期。
ELT將在2011年12月動工，建好後會成為「全球最大的天空之眼」，將「處理天文學上很多迫切解開的謎團」，到時甚至把VLT比下去。 ■綜合外電消息 ■資深翻譯員 羅國偉
Chile Desert to Host World's Biggest Telescope
Chile won the right Monday to host the largest telescope ever built. The other main contender site for the European Extremely Large Telescope(ELT), due to begin operation in 2018, was the Spanish isle of La Palma in the Canary Islands off western Africa.
The European Southern Observatory(ESO), the intergovernmental astronomical research agency which already has 3 star-gazing facilities in Chile's northern Atacama desert, announced the choice of site as a key milestone.
Advocates argue that the desert's Armazones mountain, altitude 3,060 metres, were the perfect place for the 970-million-euro project because of skies that are cloud-free 320 nights a year.
The ESO hopes the new telescope could be as revolutionary in the field of astronomy as Galileo's telescope 400 years ago that determined that the Earth revolved around the Sun and not the other way round.
"This allows us to finalise the baseline design of this very ambitious project, which will vastly advance astronomical knowledge," ESO Director General Tim de Zeeuw said.
The huge telescope is to be fitted with a mirror 42 metres in diameter-nearly as big as an Olympic-sized swimming pool, to allow optical and near-infrared peering into the heavens.
The ESO's 3 facilities in the Atacama desert include the Very Large Telescope(VLT)in the town of Paranal which is currently considered as the foremost European-operated observatory.
According to the agency, the VLT last year captured the oldest, most distant recorded object in the universe, the aftermath of a cosmic explosion dating back 13 billion years.
But the ELT, on which work is to begin in December 2011, is intended to dwarf the VLT.
When complete, the device will be"the world's biggest eye on the sky"according to the ESO, which hopes it will"address many of the most pressing unsolved questions in astronomy". ■AFP
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