Overview

The science case, technical requirements, and status of the Giant Magellan Telescope have evolved over the course of the project to reflect new discoveries and scientific priorities. The foundational documents and status papers listed below are intended for scientists and engineers to learn more about the Giant Magellan Telescope.

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Science Case

The Giant Magellan Telescope Science Book describes the transformative impact that the ground-based telescope will have on areas spanning observational astrophysics — from exoplanet discovery and characterization to the formation of stars, galaxies, and black holes in the universe. It outlines the telescope’s unique design and capabilities, including the first-generation instrument suite that has been chosen to maximize scientific impact during early operations.

Download Science Book
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Overview & Status

image SPIE 2020

James Fanson, Rebecca Bernstein, et al., “Overview and status of the Giant Magellan Telescope project,” Proc. SPIE 11445, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes VIII, 114451F (13 December 2020);

image SPIE 2018

James Fanson, Rebecca Bernstein, et al., “Overview and status of the Giant Magellan Telescope project,” Proc. SPIE 10700, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes VII, 1070012 (6 July 2018);

image SPIE 2016

Patrick J. McCarthy, James Fanson, et al.,” Proc. SPIE 9906, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes VI, 990612 (8 August 2016);

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Technical Requirements & Specifications

For additional technical documents and presentations regarding the Giant Magellan Telescope’s design and technologies, please visit the SPIE Digital Library for astronomical telescopes and instrumentation or the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS). Search for papers with Giant Magellan Telescope, GMT, or GMTO Corporation affiliation.

Foundational Documents:

image Concept of Operations

This document expresses the stakeholders’ and owners’ intention for the observatory. Through high-level operational objectives and constraints, it describes what the observatory is expected to do.

image Science Requirements

This document quantifies the broad observational requirements needed to address the scientific goals of the partnership, which are described in the Giant Magellan Telescope Science Book and the science cases for the first-generation instruments.

image Observatory Requirements

This document is the response of the Giant Magellan Telescope to the science requirements document. It contains the top-level engineering requirements for the observatory that is to be built.

image Observatory Architecture

This document captures the top-level system design, consistent with the observatory requirements. It defines the subsystems and their interactions as they deliver the various system configurations that enable the observatory to implement the observatory performance modes defined in the operations requirements document.

image Observatory Operations Concepts

This document describes how the observatory design described in the observatory architecture document will be operated by stakeholders during operations to meet concept of operations objectives and science and observatory requirements.

Site Evaluation (Chile):

image Giant Magellan Telescope site evaluation and characterization at Las Campanas Observatory

Thomas-Osip, J. E. et al., Proc. SPIE 7012, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes II, 70121U (10 July 2008).

image Giant Magellan Telescope site testing: PWV statistics and calibration

Thomas-Osip, J. E. et al., Proc. SPIE 7733, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes III, 77334N (7 August 2010).

Primary Mirror:

image Manufacture of 8.4 m segments for the GMT primary mirror

H. M. Martin, et al.,Proc. SPIE 11451, Advances in Optical and Mechanical Technologies for Telescopes and Instrumentation IV, 114514F (13 December 2020);

image The purpose, plan, and progress of the Giant Magellan Telescope primary mirror off-axis segment test cell

Barbara M. Fischer, et al., Proc. SPIE 11445, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes VIII, 114451H (13 December 2020); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2561694

Adaptive Optics:

image GMT adaptive secondary mirrors subsystem final design

Daniele Gallieni, et al.,Proc. SPIE 11448, Adaptive Optics Systems VII, 114485K (13 December 2020);

image The Giant Magellan Telescope adaptive optics program

Antonin H. Bouchez, et al., Proc. SPIE 9148, Adaptive Optics Systems IV, 91480W (21 July 2014);

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Scientific Instruments:

The following documents outline the requirements and capabilities of the Giant Magellan Telescope’s first suite of scientific instruments.

image Instrumentation progress at the Giant Magellan Telescope project

George H. Jacoby, et al., Proc. SPIE 9908, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VI, 99081U (9 August 2016);

image The instrument development and selection process for the Giant Magellan Telescope

George H. Jacoby, et al., Proc. SPIE 8446, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy IV, 84461G (24 September 2012);

GMT Consortium Large Earth Finder (GCLEF), Visible Echelle Spectrograph

image The GMT-consortium large earth finder (G-CLEF): an optical echelle spectrograph for the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT)

Andrew Szentgyorgyi, et al., Proc. SPIE 10702, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VII, 107021R (6 July 2018);

image The optical design of the G-CLEF Spectrograph: the first light instrument for the GMT

Sagi Ben-Ami, et al., Proc. SPIE 10702, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VII, 107029K (12 July 2018);

image The GMT-Consortium Large Earth Finder (G-CLEF): an optical Echelle spectrograph for the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT)

Andrew Szentgyorgyi,et al., Proc. SPIE 9908, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VI, 990822 (9 August 2016);

image The opto-mechanical design of the GMT-Consortium Large Earth Finder (G-CLEF)

Mark Mueller, et al., Proc. SPIE 10702, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VII, 107029U (13 July 2018);

GMT Multi-object Astronomical and Cosmological Spectrograph (GMACS), Visible Multi-Object Spectrograph

image GMACS: a wide-field, moderate-resolution spectrograph for the Giant Magellan Telescope

D. L. DePoy, et al., Proc. SPIE 10702, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VII, 107021X (6 July 2018);

image The optical design for the Giant Magellan Telescope Multi-object Astronomical and Cosmological Spectrograph (GMACS)

Rafael A.S. Ribeiro, et al., Proc. SPIE 10702, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VII, 107029B (12 July 2018);

GMT integral field spectrograph (GMTIFS), Near-IR IFU and Adaptive Optics Imager

image Design evolution of the Giant Magellan Telescope Integral Field Spectrograph, GMTIFS

R. Sharp, et al., Proc. SPIE 10702, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VII, 107021V (6 July 2018);

image Vibration measurement and mount design for cryocoolers on GMT and large telescopes

D. Adams, et al., Proc. SPIE 11203, Advances in Optical Astronomical Instrumentation 2019, 1120314 (3 January 2020);

image Cryogenic detector preamplifer developments at the ANU

Annino Vaccarella, et al., Proc. SPIE 10709, High Energy, Optical, and Infrared Detectors for Astronomy VIII, 1070923 (12 July 2018);

image Testing a prototype rotary mechanism for GMTIFS

I. Price, et al., Proc. SPIE 10706, Advances in Optical and Mechanical Technologies for Telescopes and Instrumentation III, 107063M (10 July 2018);

GMT Near-IR spectrograph (GMTNIRS), IR Echelle Spectrograph

image GMTNIRS: progress toward the Giant Magellan Telescope near-infrared spectrograph

Daniel T. Jaffe, et al., Proc. SPIE 9908, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VI, 990821 (9 August 2016);

Many Instrument Fiber System (MANIFEST)

image Systems engineering applied to ELT instrumentation: MANIFEST pre-conceptual design case

Vitor N. Hartmann, et al., Proc. SPIE 11450, Modeling, Systems Engineering, and Project Management for Astronomy IX, 1145015 (13 December 2020);

image Optical interface study of MANIFEST to GMACS and GCLEF instruments

Jessica Zheng, et al., Tayyaba Zafar, Ross Zhelem, Proc. SPIE 11447, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VIII, 114472Q (13 December 2020);

Commissioning Camera (ComCam)

image Conceptual design of the Giant Magellan Telescope Commissioning Camera

Jeffrey D. Crane, et al., Proc. SPIE 11447, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VIII, 114472J (13 December 2020);

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Overview
Giant Magellan Telescope
The universe awaits
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Meet the
GIANT MAGELLAN TELESCOPE
The Giant Magellan Telescope is the most advanced ground-based telescope ever engineered. It’s designed to push the boundaries of human knowledge and discover the unknown. With unmatched image quality, seven of the world’s largest mirrors will launch our view into the universe to…
Find Earth-like planets, inspect
their atmospheres, and search
for signs of life...
Investigate the cosmic origins of chemical elements and unlock the mysteries of dark matter and energy...
Peer back in cosmic time to explore the formation of the first stars, galaxies, and black holes...
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Powerful
by design
Optical Efficiency
The optical design of the Giant Magellan Telescope makes it extremely efficient in how it uses collected light. There are only two mirror surfaces in the optical path when used in its wide field of view modes, and only three mirror surfaces for the small field of view adaptive optics modes. This makes the Giant Magellan Telescope the most optically-efficient of all extremely large telescopes in the 30-meter class.
Image Clarity
The Giant Magellan Telescope is the only extremely large telescope in the 30-meter class with ground layer adaptive optics (GLAO) over the full field of view. This enables the telescope to see fainter objects with better resolution and sensitivity, which is extremely powerful for spectroscopy and the measurements of distances, dynamics, chemistry and masses of galaxies, planets, and stars.
Field of View
The Giant Magellan Telescope will have the widest field of view with the best image quality of any extremely large telescope in the 30-meter class. With a total light collecting area of 368 square meters, the telescope will deliver images sharp enough to resolve the torch engraved on a dime from nearly 160 kilometers away.
Cost Efficiency
The Giant Magellan Telescope’s optical design allows for the wide field of view, and magnification required to revolutionize astronomy, while keeping a compact total image size in the focal plane. In other words, the Giant Magellan Telescope has a smaller plate scale than the other 30-meter class extremely large telescopes, which allows for smaller, better, and cheaper instruments.
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Our founders

The Giant Magellan Telescope is being built in the mountains of Chile’s Atacama Desert, one of the best locations on Earth to explore the heavens. The extremely large telescope is the work of an international consortium of leading universities and research institutions.

Overview

The science case, technical requirements, and status of the Giant Magellan Telescope have evolved over the course of the project to reflect new discoveries and scientific priorities. The foundational documents and status papers listed below are intended for scientists and engineers to learn more about the Giant Magellan Telescope.

decor

Science case

The Giant Magellan Telescope Science Book describes the transformative impact that the ground-based telescope will have on areas spanning observational astrophysics — from exoplanet discovery and characterization to the formation of stars, galaxies, and black holes in the universe. It outlines the telescope’s unique design and capabilities, including the first-generation instrument suite that has been chosen to maximize scientific impact during early operations.

Download Science Book
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Chapter 1.

Introduction to the Giant Magellan Telescope
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Chapter 2.

Exoplanets and Planet Formation: Are we alone in the universe?
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Chapter 3.

The Birth of Stars: Where and how are stars born?
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Chapter 4.

The Death of Stars: How do stars die?
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Chapter 5.

Building the Milky Way and its Neighbors: How did galaxies grow and evolve?
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Chapter 6.

The Growth of Galaxies Over Cosmic Time: How do stars form in galaxies over cosmic time?
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Chapter 7.

Building Galaxies from Cosmic Gas: How does the gas that feeds star formation get into galaxies?
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Chapter 8.

Cosmology and The Dark Universe: How did the universe form and grow?
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Chapter 9.

First Light & Reionization: What were the first sources of light and how did they transform the universe?

Check the 2012 Science Book:

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Giant Magellan Telescope Scientific Promise and Opportunities
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Overview & status

image
SPIE 2020

James Fanson et al.: Overview and status of the Giant Magellan Telescope project | Proc. SPIE. 11445, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes VIII
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SPIE 2018

James Fanson et al.: Overview and status of the Giant Magellan Telescope project | Proc. SPIE. ####
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SPIE 2016

Patrick J. McCarthy et al.: Overview and status of the Giant Magellan Telescope project | Proc. SPIE. 9906
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SPIE 2014

Rebecca A. Bernstein et al.: Overview and status of the Giant Magellan Telescope project | Proc. SPIE. 9145, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes V
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SPIE 2012

Shectman, S.; Johns, M., “GMT overview” | Proc. SPIE 7733, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes III

For additional technical documents and presentations regarding the Giant Magellan Telescope’s design and technologies, please visit the SPIE Digital Library for astronomical telescopes and instrumentation. Search for documents with GMTO Corporation affiliation.

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System level preliminary design review

In 2014, the Giant Magellan Telescope project successfully passed its System Level Preliminary Design Review. The project was reviewed by an international panel of experts involved with building telescopes around the world. The panel examined the design of the giant telescope, its complex optical systems, and precision scientific instruments.

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Table of Contents
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Preface
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Section 1. Introduction
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Section 2. High Level Science Goals
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Section 3. Technical Overview
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Section 4. Management Plan
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Section 5. Systems Engineering
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Section 6. Telescope
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Section 7. Enclosure and Facilities
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Section 8. Adaptive Optics
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Section 9. Instrumentation
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Section 10. Software and Controls
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Section 11. Operational Concept
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Section 12. Risk Assessment
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Acronym List and Glossary

Existing observatory foundational documents for the Giant Magellan Telescope can be found under the Technical Requirements and Specifications section below.
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Technical requirements & specifications

Foundational Documents

imageConcept of Operations

This document expresses the stakeholders’ and owners’ intention for the observatory. Through high-level operational objectives and constraints, it describes what the observatory is expected to do.

imageScience Requirements

This document quantifies the broad observational requirements needed to address the scientific goals of the partnership, which are described in the Giant Magellan Telescope Science Book and the science cases for the first-generation instruments.

imageObservatory Requirements

This document is the response of the Giant Magellan Telescope to the science requirements document. It contains the top-level engineering requirements for the observatory that is to be built.

imageObservatory Architecture

This document captures the top-level system design, consistent with the observatory requirements. It defines the subsystems and their interactions as they deliver the various system configurations that enable the observatory to implement the observatory performance modes defined in the operations requirements document.

Site Evaluation (Chile)

imageGiant Magellan Telescope site evaluation and characterization at Las Campanas Observatory

Thomas-Osip, J. E. et al., Proc. SPIE 7012, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes II, 70121U (10 July 2008).

imageGiant Magellan Telescope site testing: PWV statistics and calibration

Thomas-Osip, J. E. et al., Proc. SPIE 7733, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes III, 77334N (7 August 2010).

Primary Mirrors

imageProduction of primary mirror segments for the Giant Magellan Telescope

Martin, H. M. et al., Proc. SPIE 9151, Advances in Optical and Mechanical Technologies for Telescopes and Instrumentation, 91510J (7 August 2014).

Adaptive Optics

imageThe Giant Magellan Telescope adaptive optics program

Bouchez, A. H. et al., Proc. SPIE 9148, Adaptive Optics Systems IV, 91480W (21 July 2014).

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Scientific instruments

The following documents outline the requirements and capabilities of the Giant Magellan Telescope’s first suite of scientific instruments.

imageThe instrument development and selection process for the Giant Magellan Telescope

Jacoby, G. H. et al. | Proc. SPIE 8446E-1GJ, 1 (2012)

GMT Consortium Large Earth Finder (GCLEF), Visible Echelle Spectrograph

imageThe G-CLEF spectrograph optical design: an update to the white pupil echelle configuration

Furesz, G., et al. | Proc. SPIE 9147-343, (2014)

imageFeasibility studies for the detection of O2 in an Earth-like exoplanet

Rodler, F. and Lopez-Morales, M., ApJ, 781, 12

imageA preliminary design for the GMT-Consortium Large Earth Finder (G-CLEF)

Szentgyorgyi , A. et al. | Proc. SPIE 9147, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy V, 914726 (28 July 2014)

imageThe GMT-Consortium Large Earth Finder (G-CLEF): an optical Echelle spectrograph for the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT)

Szentgyorgi, A, et al. | Part of SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2016

GMT Multi-object Astronomical & Cosmological Spectrograph (GMACS), Visible Multi-Object Spectrograph

imageThe GMACS spectrograph for the Giant Magellan Telescope

DePoy, D. L., Marshall, J. L., Prochaska, T., Behm, T. W., Smee, S. A., Barkhouser, R. H., Hammond, R. P., Shectman, S. A., Papovich, C. | Proc. SPIE 8446-292, (2012)

imageAn update on the wide field, multi-object, moderate-resolution, spectrograph for the Giant Magellan Telescope

DePoy, D. L. et al. Proc. SPIE 9147, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy V (28 July 2014)

GMT integral field spectrograph (GMTIFS), Near-IR IFU and Adaptive Optics Imager

imageGMTIFS: the adaptive optics beam steering mirror for the GMT integral-field spectrograph

Davies, J., et al. | Proc. SPIE, 2016, Volume 9912, id. 991217

imageGMTIFS: challenging optical design problems and their solutions for the GMT integral-field spectrograph

Hart, J. et al. | Proc. SPIE, 2016, 9908, 99089F

imageGMTIFS: cryogenic rotary mechanisms for the GMT Integral-Field Spectrograph

Hart, J. et al. | Proc. SPIE, 2016, 9912, 991264

imageThe GMT integral-field spectrograph (GMTIFS) conceptual design

McGregor, P. J., Bloxham, G. J., Boz, R., Davies, J., Doolan, M. C., Ellis, M., Hart, J., Nielsen, J. J., Parcell, S., Sharp, R. G. and Stevanovic, D | Proc. SPIE 8446 (2012)

imageGMTIFS: The Giant Magellan Telescope integral fields spectrograph and imager

Sharp, R., et al. | Proc. SPIE, 2016, 9908, 99081Y

GMT Near-IR spectrograph (GMTNIRS), IR Echelle Spectrograph

imageGMTNIRS (Giant Magellan telescope near-infrared spectrograph): optimizing the design for maximum science productivity and minimum risk

Jaffe, D. T., Barnes, S. I., Brooks, C. B., Gully-Santiago, M., Pak, S., Park, C., Yuk, I.-S. | Proc. SPIE, 9147-74, (2014)

imageScience instrument development for the Giant Magellan Telescope

Jaffe, D. T. et al. | Proc. SPIE 7735, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy III, 773525 (15 July 2010)

Many Instrument Fiber System (MANIFEST)

imageDesign and early performance of IGRINS (immersion grating infrared spectrometer

Park, C. P., et al. | Proc. SPIE, 9147-48, (2014)

imageThe MANIFEST fibre positioning system for the Giant Magellan telescope

Lawrence, J., et al. | Proc. SPIE, 9147-341, (2014)

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Overview
arrowOverview
arrowScience Case
arrowOverview & Status
arrowSystem Level Preliminary Design Review
arrowTechnical Requirements & Specifications
arrowFoundational Documents
arrowSite Evaluation (Chile)
arrowPrimary Mirrors
arrowAdaptive Optics
arrowScientific Instruments
arrowGCLEF
arrowGMACS
arrowGMTIFS
arrowGMTNIRS
arrowMANIFEST