Big Bang on Earth: Blasting a Mountaintop to Mine the Sky

Cambridge, MA - Astronomers have begun to blast 3 million cubic feet of rock from a mountaintop in the Chilean Andes to make room for what will be the world's largest telescope when completed near the end of the decade. The telescope will be located at the Carnegie Institution's Las Campanas Observatory - one of the world's premier astronomical sites, known for its pristine conditions and clear, dark skies. Over the next few months, more than 70 controlled blasts will break up the rock while leaving a solid bedrock foundation for the telescope and its precision scientific instruments. The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) will have unprecedented capabilities, allowing it to peer back to the dawn of time, witnessing the birth of the first stars, galaxies and black holes, while also exploring planetary systems similar to our own around nearby stars in the Milky Way. The GMT will help astronomers probe the nature of dark matter and dark energy - mysterious forms of matter and energy that allow galaxies to form while the expansion of the Universe accelerates. At a ceremony on the mountaintop, Wendy Freedman, Director of the Carnegie Observatories and Chair of the Giant Magellan Telescope Organization said, "Today marks a historic step toward constructing an astronomical telescope larger than any in existence today.