FROM: Lori Stiles (520-626-4402; lstiles{at}u.arizona.edu)

Nine Partners Officially Join Giant Magellan Telescope Project
University of Arizona
February 6, 2009

Nine astronomical research organizations from the United States,
Australia and
Korea have signed an official agreement to construct and operate the
Giant
Magellan Telescope, or GMT, at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, the
Giant
Magellan Telescope Corp. announced today.

Seok Jae Park, president of the Korean Astronomy and Space Sciences
Institute,
on behalf of the Republic of Korea, becomes the ninth partner to sign
the
founder's agreement at ceremonies held at the Carnegie Observatories
in
Pasadena, Calif., today.

Other participating partners are the Carnegie Institution for Science,
The
University of Arizona, Harvard University, the Smithsonian
Institution, Texas A
& M University, the University of Texas at Austin, Australian National
University and Astronomy Australia Limited.

The 25-meter (80-foot) GMT is one of the proposed next-generation
extremely
large telescopes. The colossal telescope will feature six giant off-
axis
mirrors around a seventh on-axis mirror produced by innovative mirror-
making
technologies at UA's Steward Observatory Mirror Laboratory.

When completed around 2019, the GMT will produce images 10 times
sharper from
its site in northern Chile than the Hubble Space Telescope does from
space.

"With the signing of this agreement, we can say the GMT project is
well
launched," said University of Arizona Regents' professor and Steward
Observatory director Peter M. Strittmatter, a member of the GMT Corp.
board of
directors.

GMT Corp. board chairperson Wendy Freedman, director of Carnegie
Observatories,
said, "The founder's agreement establishes the framework for the
construction
and operation of the telescope. The founders group represents an
extraordinary
team of institutions, each one of which has made important
contributions to the
development of the most advanced telescopes and instrumentation during
the last
100 years. The GMT continues this remarkable legacy."

Strittmatter is principal investigator on the $17 million contract for
making
the first GMT 8.4-meter (27-foot) off-axis mirror at Steward
Observatory's
Mirror Lab. An off-axis mirror focuses light at an angle away from its
axis,
unlike a symmetrical mirror that focuses light along its axis.

No off-axis mirror of this size has been made before.

The Mirror Lab spin-cast the first GMT 20-ton mirror blank in July
2005 and is
currently machining its surface to near-final shape.

"One of the greatest technical challenges being tackled at the Mirror
Lab is
polishing and testing the off-axis mirror to an accuracy of one-
millionth of an
inch," said Roger Angel, director of the Mirror Lab and director of
the Center
for Astronomical Adaptive Optics.

Arizona and Italy pioneered another feature which will make the GMT an
extremely
powerful tool, Strittmatter noted. The GMT will have unique adaptive
secondary
mirrors that quickly change their shape to correct for air turbulence.

The GMT will be enclosed in a 200-foot high building at the Carnegie
Institution's Las Campanas Observatory in the Andes Mountains in
Chile.

"In both the mirror technology and the site, the GMT project is
building on the
superb heritage demonstrated by the two very successful 6.5-meter (21-
foot)
Magellan telescopes that have been operation at Las Campanas since
2000," said
Matt Johns, GMT program manager.

GMT partners plan to complete the detailed design for the telescope
over the
next two years and begin construction in 2012. The consortium has so
far raised
$130 million for the $700 million project.

"The science opportunities for this telescope are extraordinary,"
Carnegie
Observatories astronomer and GMT acting director Patrick McCarthy
said. "It
will shed light not only upon the nature of the universe, but also on
the
fundamental laws of physics that govern its evolution. As such, it
seems
especially fitting that this international founder's agreement should
have been
signed in the International Year of Astronomy, the 400th anniversary
of the
first astronomical use of a telescope by Galileo."

CONTACTS:
Peter Strittmatter (520-621-6524; pstrittm{at}email.arizona.edu)
Roger Angel (520-621-6541; rangel{at}as.arizona.edu)
Wendy Freedman (626-304-0204; wendy{at}ociw.edu)

WEBLINKS for downloadable photos and details:
Giant Magellan Telescope - http://www.gmto.org
Steward Observatory Mirror Lab - http://mirrorlab.as.arizona.edu/
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