A new telescope scheduled to be inaugurated this week on Spain's Canary Islands holds the title as the world's largest, but contenders are gathering in the wings.
The Gran Telescopio Canarias, or GTC for short, has 10.4 meters (34 feet) of mirrors for collecting faint light from distant objects.
"Basically, a telescope mirror functions like a bucket in the rain: The larger the bucket, the faster you collect water," said Michael Richer, an astronomer with Mexico's Instituto de Astronomia Ensenada, who serves as a scientific advisor for the GTC.
"Larger telescopes allow you to collect light faster. This permits the observation of fainter sources -- either because they're farther away or because they're intrinsically fainter -- or more detailed observations that require more precise manipulation of the light," Richer told Discovery News.
GTC tops the 10-meter (32.8-foot) Keck Telescopes on Hawaii's Mauna Kea and folds new teams of astronomers into a heated quest for knowledge about how the universe formed and what it contains. The $180 million GTC is owned Spain, Mexico and the University of Florida.
"When you're a partner in your own telescope, you have a competitive advantage," said Stan Dermott, chairman of the astronomy department at the University of Florida.
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