“Carnegie rallies $205 million founding partner investment to accelerate completion of the Giant Magellan Telescope”, Carnegie News

August 3, 2022

The Giant Magellan Telescope

Last November, the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine ranked the GMT as a top strategic priority, recommending an injection of federal support to complete its construction and bring about a new era in astronomy. The endorsement was part of the academies’ review of the U.S. Extremely Large Telescope program and other space-related initiatives planned for the next decade.

In recognition of this crucial assessment, Carnegie rallied other project partners to affirm their support with a second infusion of institutional funding.  The project awaits word on whether the federal government will follow through on the Academies’ recommendation that completion of an extremely large telescope is “absolutely essential if the United States is to maintain a position as a leader in ground-based astronomy.”

Carnegie was joined by University of Arizona, the University of Chicago, The University of Texas at Austin, Harvard University, and the São Paulo Research Foundation, which are all founding partners in the initiative to construct the most-powerful telescope ever engineered. Once completed, the GMT will allow astronomers to see farther and with greater detail than ever before possible—thanks to the world’s largest mirrors.

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