Earth-based telescopes are among the essential equipment models used by astronomers and other space researchers.
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A general view of one of a 64-dish radio telescope system is seen during an official unveiling ceremony on July 13, 2018 in Carnarvon. - South Africa on July 13 unveiled the planet's super radio telescope which will be at least 50 times more powerful than any telescope on earth. Deputy President on July 13.
Before NASA's James Webb Space Telescope and other orbital models arrived, aerospace agencies relied on these ground-based telescopes to observe stars and other heavenly bodies.
Unlike regular telescopes, Earth-based models used by astronomers are quite massive since they need to capture stars and other space objects that are light years away.
Largest Earth-Based Telescopes 2022
Space.Com provided a list of some of the largest Earth-based telescopes. These include the following:
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People wait for the sun to go down to view Mars at the Chabot Space and Science Center August 26, 2003 in Oakland, California. Hundreds of astronomy enthusiasts visited the Chabot Space Center in hopes of viewing the red planet Mars through high-powered telescopes. Mars will be 34,646,418 miles from earth at 5:51 AM EST.
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Keck Telescopes
- Located in Maunakea, Hawaii. Has a diameter of 10 meters/32.8 feet.
- Allows astronomers to see deeper into space using infrared technology.
Hobby Ederly
- Located in Texas, United States. Has a diameter of 10 meters/32 feet.
- It is one of the world's largest optical telescopes. Astronomers used it to capture the light emitted by quasar, the brightest space object.
SALT (South African Large Telescope)
- Located in Karoo, South Africa. Has a diameter of 11 meters/36 feet.
- SALT is quite similar to Hobby Ederly. But, it has higher sensitivity, allowing it to capture the first white dwarf pulsar.
GTC (Gran Telescopio Canarias)
- Located in La Palma, Spain. Has a diameter of 10.4 meters/34.1 feet.
- Astronomers used this telescope to capture densely popular galaxy clusters.
Are Earth-Based Better Than Space Telescopes?
Of course, space telescopes have the upper hand since they don't have to worry about light pollution.
Since they are already in orbit, they can capture images of heavenly bodies more efficiently than ground-based models.
Sciencing explained that Earth-based telescopes have some advantages over space models, such as the following:
- Earth-based telescopes cost less (around 10x to 20x cheaper than space-based ones) to build.
- Earth-based telescopes are easier to maintain since astronomers no longer need to visit outer space.
If you want to learn more about how Earth-based models are somehow better than space telescopes, you can click here.
Recently, China's Shenzhou 14 crew shared their captured space images.
Meanwhile, JAXA's self-destruct signal was sent to the Epsilon-6 after detecting a system error.
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Written by Griffin Davis
