Spain finally joins the construction of the telescope more … – The World

Spain finally participate in building the world’s largest telescope. The Council of Ministers has authorized the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness acquire expenditure commitments necessary for Spain to participate in the Telescopio European Extremely Large (E-ELT) . According to this Agreement, will go 37.7 million euros in the next 12 years for the construction and operation in Chile of this great observatory, projecting European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO, for its acronym in English).

Spain’s participation in this great project se has achieved ‘in extremis’ , as economic difficulties and cutbacks in R & D have been about to scuttle a historic opportunity to position the national science and engineering among the most advanced of mundo.De Indeed, Spain is the latest member of ESO countries have confirmed their participation in the construction of European giant.

Spain is a member of the ESO since 2006 and contributes to its budget about 11 million per year: 140 million in total, adding the contribution of income. To participate in the E-ELT must pay an extra amount, so they agreed on a specific timetable for the next twelve years. construction budget of E-ELT is 1,083 million euros.

The accession of Spain also allow the participation of Spanish companies in tenders convened for the construction and operation of the telescope , which are only open to countries that sign the project and likely will involve 800 million euros in contracts. It is estimated that the Spanish industry could get about 130 million euros.

The E-ELT, the most important project of ESO be located 3,060 meters at the Cerro framing Chile and construction technology developed in Spain Great Canary Telescope .

The E-ELT will be the optical / infrared world’s largest, with a mirror 39 meters in diameter and able to pick up thirteen times more light than the largest existing telescopes today and correct the distortions caused by the atmosphere, providing sixteen times sharper images Space Telescope Hubble.

the necessary funding for its construction, 300 million from the budget of the Organization, 350 million of Brazil’s accession to it, and the rest, about 433 million, are divided among the additional contributions United