US scientists have drawn up plans to build the largest telescope ever seen. Its 30-metre-diameter mirror would be almost 10 times as big as those in the Keck telescopes in Hawaii, currently the world's largest observatories. The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation is funding a $17.5m feasibility study and it could be ready for work by 2012. Astronomers say the new telescope would allow a more detailed look at distant stars and galaxies, and aid the search for planets beyond our Solar System. The optical and infrared telescope would be built with adaptive optics, which will flex in a controlled manner to compensate for the way the Earth's turbulent atmosphere distorts the light reaching the planet's surface. The system would result in images more than 12 times sharper than those from the Hubble Space Telescope.

The new observatory will also have nine times the light-gathering ability of one of the 10-metre Keck twin telescopes. "Constructing and operating a telescope of this size will be a huge undertaking requiring a large collaborative effort," says Richard Ellis, director of optical observatories at the California Institute of Technology.


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