GMT - Giant Magellan Telescope and the JWST - James Webb Space Telescope

This is just so intriguing to me. I hope in my lifetime that we, as a single race, can get past our differences and can continue learning about what we don't know. My biggest fear in terms of knowledge and continued learning is that the human race will regress (such as in the event of something catastrophic (like the one everyone is predicting in 2012, a large impact event, World War III, etc)). The GMT and the JWST will teach us a lot about what we don't know and I can't wait until they both enter service.

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The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT)—the product of more than a century of astronomical research and telescope-building by some of the world’s leading research institutions—will open a new window on the universe for the 21st century. Scheduled for completion around 2018, the GMT will have the resolving power of a 24.5-meter (80 foot) primary mirror—far larger than any other telescope ever built. It will answer many of the questions at the forefront of astrophysics today and will pose new and unanticipated riddles for future generations of astronomers.

The GMT will produce images up to 10 times sharper than the Hubble Space Telescope.

The GMT is scheduled for completion around 2019.
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It serves to note that the GMT is a ground-based telescope. It's absolutely amazing that from Earth we will be able to see what we will be able to see with this telescope. Even more intriguing to me is the James Webb Space Telescope.

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The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a large, infrared-optimized space telescope, scheduled for launch in 2013. JWST will find the first galaxies that formed in the early Universe, connecting the Big Bang to our own Milky Way Galaxy. JWST will peer through dusty clouds to see stars forming planetary systems, connecting the Milky Way to our own Solar System. JWST's instruments will be designed to work primarily in the infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum, with some capability in the visible range.

JWST will have a large mirror, 6.5 meters (21.3 feet) in diameter and a sunshield the size of a tennis court. Both the mirror and sunshade won't fit onto the rocket fully open, so both will fold up and open only once JWST is in outer space. JWST will reside in an orbit about 1.5 million km (1 million miles) from the Earth.
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What will they find when they point their telescopes towards the farthest reaches of the Universe? Wouldn't it be cool if the first picture sent back to Earth is one of a cyclops or some shit smiling back at us?

Will these telescopes show us the distinct possibility we are not alone in the Universe, or hell, our own galaxy? Scientists estimate that the Milky Way galaxy is 30,000 light years across. There is a lot of shit that can be hidden in a space that big! What will happen to various religions that go completely against the grain of Science?

Hrmm, well this is interesting...

It seems we are on the verge of finding out whether or not there are other "Earth-like" planets. NASA's Kepler mission lifted off just under a month ago and its sole purpose is to find these planets. Kepler is a space-based telescope.


If you have half a brain, it really makes you think about what is out there and what will be found in our lifetime. The global ramifications of finding an Earth-like planet are massive. Well, they should be anyway. Most people will not believe what they see (even if it stares them straight in the face) and some people live in denial, disputing everything they see.

What if Kepler finds another Earth? What will that mean to you?


A side note:

This is my first Blog. Every time I make a post I have inputted five E-mail addresses that will tell you that I have posted. If you want removed, please tell me (you will obviously know who you are).