European Southern Observatory (ESO)/ Extremely Large Telescope (ELT)
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) is an intergovernmental astronomical research organisation in which Sweden has participated since ESO’s founding in 1962. It currently consists of 16 member countries. ESO headquarters are in Germany, but the La Silla-Paranal and ALMA observatories are located in Chile, where the new Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) is now under construction. ELT will become the world’s largest optical/infrared telescope, with a mirror 39 metres in diameter and 13 times higher light collection capacity than the largest optical telescopes today. Swedish researchers are involved in two of the five instruments that come into play during the initial phase of the ELT MOSAIC and ANDES.
The Council for Research Infrastructures (RFI) funds this research infrastructure, which the Swedish Research Council considers to be in the national interest.
Related information
Contact
Nikolai Piskunov, Professor at the Department of Physics and Astronomy.
