Sao Paulo poised to join megatelescope

摘要

Astronomers in Brazil's richest state are pushing for a stake in the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), one of three planned megatelescopes. The Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) is evaluating a proposal that would see it invest US$40 million in the 25-metre facility, to be built at the Carnegie Institution for Science's Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. If Brazil finalizes joining the European Southern Observatory (ESO) as planned under a separate proposal, Sao Paulo state astronomers would have access to another megatelescope, the 39-metre European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), which ESO also plans to build in Chile. Brazil's accession agreement to ESO, signed in 2010 by the then science minister Sergio Machado Rezende, would deliver €270 million (US$371 million) to the organization over a decade - almost one-third of the E-ELT's cost. But Brazil's legislative committees are still hunting for funds and its Congress has not ratified the agreement (see Nature 501,13-14; 2013).