The largest telescope that will ever be built*

The asterisk is important. ■ AD: 👨‍💻 NordVPN's best deal is here: https://nordvpn.com/tomscott - with a 30-day money-back guarantee. ■ More on the ELT: @ESOobservatory https://eso.org The Extremely Large Telescope, in Paranal, Chile, is probably going to be the largest optical telescope that will ever be constructed. I was invited out there by the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council and the European Southern Observatory, and I wasn't going to turn down a chance like that. 📰 DISCLAIMER While the STFC and ESO invited me and arranged the logistics after arrival into the Antofagasta region, I was not paid for this (not even my travel costs) and I have sole editorial control over the video. This is not an advert. 👥 CREDITS Editor: Michelle Martin https://www.youtube.com/@OnTheCrux Script assistant: Laura Conlon Audio mix: Graham Haerther and Manni Simon at Standard Studios Thanks to Alex Fyans, Hannah Conduit, and William Taylor from STFC; to Francisco Rodríguez, Juan Carlos, and Michele Cirasuolo from ESO; and to everyone I met at Paranal! 🖼 IMAGE CREDITS Images and footage from ESO is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://www.eso.org/public/outreach/copyright/ First image of an explanet: https://www.eso.org/public/images/26a_big-vlt/ Stars orbiting the supermassive black hole: https://www.eso.org/public/australia/videos/eso1825e/ VLT light path: https://www.eso.org/public/videos/LightPath-VLT2021/ VLTI delay lines: https://www.eso.org/public/videos/esocast13/ ELT render: https://www.eso.org/public/images/elt-fulldome-1_cc/ 📽 PREVIOUS VIDEOS Previously, in Arecibo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3WiRunOsWY and in Parkes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6o38C-ultvw 🟥 MORE FROM TOM: https://www.tomscott.com/ (you can find contact details and social links there too) 📰 WEEKLY NEWSLETTER with good stuff from the rest of the internet: https://www.tomscott.com/newsletter/ ❓ LATERAL, free weekly podcast: https://lateralcast.com/ https://youtube.com/lateralcast/ ➕ TOM SCOTT PLUS: https://youtube.com/tomscottplus 👥 THE TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES: https://youtube.com/techdif