“This is an important milestone that allows us to finalise the baseline design of this very ambitious project, which will vastly advance astronomical knowledge,” says Tim de Zeeuw, ESO’s Director General. ESO is now drawing up detailed construction plans.
The E-ELT is designed address many of the most pressing unsolved questions in astronomy. The final go-ahead for construction is expected at the end of 2010, with the start of operations planned for 2018.
The decision on the E-ELT site was taken by the ESO Council, which is the governing body of the organisation composed of representatives of the ESO’s fourteen Member States. It was based on an extensive meteorological investigation lasting several years. The majority of the data collected during the site selection campaigns will be made public in the course of 2010.
In anticipation of the choice of Cerro Armazones as the future site of the E-ELT, and to facilitate and support the project, the Chilean Government has agreed to donate to the ESO a substantial tract of land contiguous to ESO’s Paranal property and containing Armazones, in order to ensure the continued protection of the site against all adverse influences, in particular light pollution and mining activities.
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