Large Millimeter Telescope

The Large Millimeter Telescope ( LMT), in Spanish Gran Telescopio Milimétrico (GTM ), is a large radio telescope for millimeter waves on the 4580 -meter summit of the extinct volcano Sierra Negra in Puebla, Mexico. It was officially inaugurated on 22 November 2006 and at that time the largest for the targeted wavelength range of 0.85 to 4 mm.

The location of the LMT is located approximately 250 kilometers east of Mexico City, in the vicinity of Pico de Orizaba volcano ( Pico de Orizaba ), the highest mountain in Mexico, and in winter visibility conditions such as in Antarctica. In the clear air at average wind speeds of less than 5 meters per second, the pointing accuracy of the antenna will be better than one arcsecond. It has a good view of both the northern and the southern sky.

The parabolic antenna has a diameter of 50 meters, an area of ​​2000 square meters and consists of 187 large reflectors. It weighs 2,500 tons and rests on a 540 -cubic-meter concrete base. The construction costs amounted to 115 million U.S. dollars, or about 90 million euros. The design of the telescope is from the MT Aerospace AG in Mainz, mainly by German engineer Hans Kärcher. It's run LMT by the Mexican Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica and the U.S. University of Massachusetts.

After the construction period since 1997 just under two years are needed in order to position the partial reflectors, to adjust and rectify after the inauguration and official launch. The main task is from 2008, research on the formation of large-scale structures after the Big Bang, of infrared galaxies in the early universe and of star-forming regions. The many uses have, among other things, the study of the composition of comets and the atmospheres of planets at the target.