Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Thanks to CTOnews.com netizen MissBook for the clue delivery! CTOnews.com, December 28 (Xinhua) the International liquid Mirror Telescope (ILMT), a 4-meter-diameter telescope in the Himalayas, has opened its eyes and looked deep into the universe, using a slowly rotating disk of liquid mercury instead of a solid mirror to focus light, the Science and Technology Daily reported.

The telescope, located at the Devasthal Observatory in the Himalayas, is the first liquid telescope built specifically for astronomy at an altitude of 2450 meters. Most telescopes use glass mirrors, but as ILMT's name suggests, its mirrors are made of a thin layer of liquid mercury that floats on 10 microns of compressed air and rotates every eight seconds.

Rotation causes liquid mercury to form a parabolic shape, just like contact lenses, which enables the telescope to focus light from deep space. In fact, the mirrors of glass telescopes are also parabolic, but it takes more effort to shape solid materials, so liquid mirror telescopes are much more cost-effective than traditional telescopes. The researchers say the cost of liquid mirrors is only about 1% of that of glass mirrors, so they are very suitable for making large telescopes.

The ILMT, valued at $2 million (about 13.94 million yuan), was jointly built by Belgium, Canada and India. For comparison, not far from ILMT is another 3.6m, maneuverable Devasthal optical telescope built at the same time by the same Belgian company at a price of $18 million.

Unlike ordinary telescopes that point to different places, liquid mirror telescopes can only look directly at the sky overhead. However, because the telescope will focus on one area, it is very suitable for discovering transient objects such as supernovae and asteroids.

CTOnews.com has learned that ILTM will operate from October to June each year and will be closed during the rainy season in India. The project is an international cooperation among institutions from India Belgium Poland Uzbekistan and Canada.

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