[ASA] News from GMTO

[John O'Byrne]

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GMT Welcomes New Community SAC Members 


New GMT Community SAC Members: Bob Blum,
Julianne Dalcanton, and Megan Donahue
GMT welcomes Bob Blum
(NOAO), Julianne Dalcanton
(University of Washington) and
Megan Donahue (Michigan
State University) to the
Scientific Advisory Committee.
They provide fresh perspective
on key scientific issues, broaden participation from the larger
community, and spread the
word about progress with GMT outside the partner institutions.  Their areas of interest include massive star formation, stellar populations in external galaxies, and x-ray studies of galaxy clusters. 

More ...
First Annual GMT Community Science Meeting in Chicago: June 10-12, 2013

Cosmology in the Era of Extremely Large Telescopes

The Giant Magellan Telescope Organization and the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics at the University of Chicago will host the first in a series of annual meetings to interface with the science community at large and engage scientists outside the GMTO consortium in thinking about exciting opportunities
that GMT and other new facilities will bring in the coming decade and beyond.  The title of the 2013 meeting is "Cosmology in the Era of Extremely Large Telescopes."  The meeting will be held at the University of Chicago's downtown Gleacher Center on June 10-12.  Leading theorists and observers will discuss cutting edge research in cosmology and galaxy evolution and the role of large surveys and new facilities, including GMT, in enabling new discoveries. 
 
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GMT Demonstrates Crucial Mirror Phasing Technique

Bringing the Universe into Focus
 
Simulated GMT images of a distant star cluster without (left) and with (right) adaptive optics using the fully phased telescope
  
Imagine you built the biggest telescope in the world only to discover that its images were out of focus.  It's happened before.  And historically, whenever a telescope has gotten bigger, the problems have gotten bigger too, something engineers call the "coefficient of difficulty."  In order for the GMT to achieve its optimal resolution, as much as 10 times that of the Hubble Space Telescope, there are two major challenges that
must be conquered:  blurring by the earth's atmosphere and timing (or "phasing") of the light from a distant object as it reaches each of the GMT's mirror segments at slightly different intervals.  The GMT team and scientists at the Smithsonian are excited with the results of a sophisticated new camera that addresses this phasing challenge.
 
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GMT Completes Most Challenging Mirror Ever Made
 
Professor Roger Angel views the GMT1 mirror

Scientists at the University of Arizona and the Giant Magellan Telescope Organization in California are celebrating a momentous achievement. On October 23, 2012 they announced that they have succeeded in completing the most challenging astronomical telescope mirror ever made. It is the first of seven mirrors that will operate together to form the 4000-square-foot light-collecting surface on the Giant Magellan Telescope. The scientists were particularly anxious about achieving the perfect shape for this first mirror because it is critical to the performance of the completed telescope and hence the success of the entire project. If they could succeed with this first mirror, they can succeed with the others.
 
Many aspects of polishing the giant mirror segment (27 feet in diameter) have never been attempted before. 
 
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Instrument Science Workshop in Pasadena
March 12-13, 2013 - Carnegie Observatories

Science with the GMT Integral Field Spectrograph


Simulated summed channel map of a z=1.5 galaxy observed with GMTIFS
GMTO and the GMTIFS instrument team will host a
two-day workshop in Pasadena. The goal of the
workshop is to inform interested parties of the
proposed capabilities of GMTIFS and the GMT laser and natural guide star AO systems. Participants will help generate a set of example science programs to aid in refinement of the instrument requirements. Information regarding the meeting and venue can be found at:
  
http://www.mso.anu.edu.au/gmtifs-workshop
  
The meeting will be held at the Carnegie Observatories at 813 Santa Barbara St. and is open to all, subject to the capacity of the venue.

More ...
Employment Opportunities

The GMT Project is looking for highly-motivated and qualified individuals to work on this world-class facility. Find out about current open positions.


Copyright © 2012, GMTO Corporation. All Rights Reserved.


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