Promoted content: National Instruments and the world's largest telescope

Dubbed “the world’s biggest eye on the sky,” the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), aims to help scientists find extrasolar planets that are orbiting other stars, answer fundamental questions regarding planet formation and better understand the nature and distribution of dark matter and dark energy. The E-ELT project was undertaken by the European Southern Observatory (ESO).

The E-ELT is a 39-metre main mirror, making it the world’s largest optical/near-infrared telescope. Because it is difficult to manufacture, deploy and maintain a 39-metre mirror, about 800 hexagonal mirror segments (Figure 1) with a 1.5 m diameter make up the mirror known as primary mirror M1. In comparison, the primary mirror of the Hubble Space Telescope has a 2.4 m diameter. To combat the image degradation caused by aberrations in the optical design and atmospheric interference, the E-ELT (Figure 2) employs an innovative system of active and adaptive optics for the M1 and M4 mirrors.