Australia to Allocate $88.4 Million from EIF to Help Support Construction of the 24.5-metre Giant Magellan Telescope. (July 20, 2009)

Australia's Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr, announced today that the Australian Government will allocate $88.4 million from the Education Investment Fund to support Australia’s involvement in the international consortium that will build the Giant Magellan Telescope which will have the resolving power of a 24.5 metre (965 inch) instrument and will be located at the 2550-metre-high Las Campanas Observatory, Chile.

GMT Partner Institutions:

Carnegie Institution of Washington

Harvard University

Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

Texas A&M University
The University of Texas at Austin
University of Arizona

The Australian National University
Astronomy Australia Ltd.

Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute

As announced in the Budget, Astronomy Australia will also receive a separate grant of $10 million under the Super Science Initiative to continue its work of coordinating the development of Australia’s astronomical infrastructure.

Of the new investment, $65 million will be used to help build the Giant Magellan Telescope which will give Australia a 10% share of the observatory.

The balance of this investment – $23.4 million – will be used to develop new engineering and instrument-making capabilities at ANU’s Mount Stromlo Campus, where it is expected many GMT components will be produced.

The GMT is expected to be able to detect objects 13 billion light years distant, i.e. within 700 million years following the Big Bang, and because of the use of adaptive optics, provide a resolution ten times that of the Hubble Space Telescope.

In making the announcement Senator Carr said: "Australia has now signed up for two of the biggest scientific projects of our time – the Giant Magellan optical telescope and the Square Kilometre Array radio-telescope, which we hope will be built in Western Australia. These instruments will usher in a new era of discovery. Australia can, must and will be part of it."