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Article: Mapping the universe then and now: Cosmic cartography gets a boost by looking at ever-more distant galaxies ever further back in time.(Features)(Ideas)
- Article from:
- The Christian Science Monitor
- Article date:
- June 15, 2000
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 The Christian Science Publishing Society. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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It's a slow, palm-moistening drive up the one-lane dirt road that clings to the steep contours of Mt. Hopkins, 35 miles south of Tucson, Ariz.
Creeping along in a small car, it's hard to imagine how a tractor-trailer truck bearing a fragile, 21-foot-diameter mirror could ever clear the hairpin turns to reach the glistening white telescope perched atop the 8,500-foot summit.
With its new, larger mirror to gather more light and some new instruments, the refurbished telescope is slated to become a powerful tool in one of modern astronomy's most ambitious efforts: to build 3-D maps of the observable universe. Using mountaintop telescopes worldwide, teams of ...