Uni boffins make world’s biggest telescope

The detail you can see on the Sun will be the equivalent of being able to examine a pound coin from 100kilometres away


Die-hard physics fans will be rejoicing as uni researchers form part of a team to create the world’s biggest solar telescope.

A Sheffield team of eggheads will build cameras for the super telescope, which will be situated in Hawaii.

The £344 million telescope is catchily named The Daniel K Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) and will take around 4 years to build.

An artist’s impression of the telescope in all its glory

It will apparently be so fancy the detail it can see on the surface of the Sun  will be the equivalent of being able to examine a £1 coin from 100 kilometres away.

The telescope is hoped to help address fundamental questions at the core of physics via high-speed measurements of the different layers of the Sun’s atmosphere.

One of the lead boffins on the project, Professor Robertus von Fay Siebenburgen, described it as a “great facility for early career scientists in the UK and will pave the way for Sheffield to remain at the forefront of solar plasma research.”

Unfortunately, we will have to bear the agonising wait for a little while longer, as it is set to be finished in 2019.

Mind blowing.