ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope aims to uncover mysteries of the cosmos

The European Southern Observatory’s Extremely Large Telescope will revolutionize astronomy with its unprecedented view, helping uncover details about the universe and its origins while pushing the boundaries of exploration.

Autodesk Video

September 30, 2024

The European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) is set to be one of the most ambitious astronomical projects ever, offering an unparalleled view of the universe that could finally help answer whether humans are alone in the cosmos.
The ELT, with its five-mirror optical design and 80-meter-high dome, is 10 times larger than any previous telescope, requiring seamless collaboration among thousands of experts worldwide and cutting-edge technology to bring this monumental vision to life.
Using advanced tools like Autodesk Construction Cloud, Fusion Manage, Inventor, and Revit, the ESO team is leveraging virtual models and data integration to tackle the complex challenges of building this groundbreaking telescope, paving the way for future technological marvels.

Are humans alone in the universe?

That question has puzzled humans gazing upward at the night sky for centuries.

Throughout history, as science and technology have progressed, humans have continued exploring space and getting answers to what is out there. But now, thanks to the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), humans are about to get a much better look at what else is out there—and possibly answer that age-old question.

The ELT, heralded as the “world’s biggest eye in the sky,” will have a five-mirror optical design that will provide a new, unfamiliar, and incredibly detailed view of the universe. Though the ESO is based in Munich, Germany, the ELT’s home sits more than 7,000 miles away on Cerro Armazones—a high, arid, remote mountain in Chile—an ideal spot for astronomical observations.

With thousands of professionals collaborating across the globe from multiple disciplines—including astronomy, architecture, engineering, construction, design, and manufacturing—creating the ELT is an incredible feat. Watch the video to learn more about this modern technological marvel.

View transcript

Gerd Jakob, Head of Mechanical Engineering, ESO: The ELT will allow a much deeper and sharper look into the universe than ever before.

Ronald Guzman Collazos, Head of Telescopes and Large Structure Group, ESO: It’s a massive structure that is constructed all around Europe and is shipped and installed in the desert where there’s nothing else.

Jakob: ELT stands for extremely large telescope. It is ESO’s most ambitious project so far. This is the largest project ESO has ever built. Everything we do with the ELT is about 10 times bigger than anything in astronomy before.

Guzman: My name is Ronald Guzman. I’m a mechanical engineer. I got involved in the ELT project when I became the head of the Telescopes and Large Structure Group.

Jakob: My name is Gerd Jakob. I’m the head of mechanical engineering. ESO is the European organization for astronomical research in the southern hemisphere. Building such an amazingly big project requires people to work together of all disciplines. So there are the astronomers who have the wish to get the biggest telescope in the world, and then there are the engineers who have to build it.

Guzman: There are several thousand people working on the project if you consider all the organization, company, institutes.

Jakob: So at ESO, we are using Autodesk products since many years, but in the last years we’re constructing this ELT, we saw also that we have to combine other products from Autodesk, like the Construction Cloudand Fusion Manage, to have global data communication between all our different stakeholders.

So the ELT has millions of parts. Of course, it has an outer building, which is a large dome of 80-meter height. It has the inner part which consists of the main mirrors in astronomical instrumentation. Everything is cooled to very low temperatures, and this is done to enhance the sensitivity of the system.

In the ELT, everything is 10 times bigger than anything before. So this brings a lot of challenges with it.

Guzman: We are using currently Inventor for our own internal developments and for our own designs. Afterward, we are transferring the data from Inventor to Revit, and this is helping us also to have a complete model of the telescope. By having a virtual model, we can understand and feel the size of this telescope. We can also check collisions, and we can also see how the telescope will look like in the future. We’re using 3ds Max for some animations and sometimes for improving surfaces for using our models in virtual reality.

Jakob: I’m very happy with all the achievements so far. There is still a long way to go and I’m really, really proud to work in such an environment like ESO.

Guzman: All the fields that are in this telescope are really fascinating and we do it in an international environment with colleagues from all around Europe, all around the world.

I think I’m gonna be extremely proud when we see this telescope in operation and the lasers that are gonna be installed on it shooting to the atmosphere. I think this is gonna be one of the greatest moments that we will live.

Jakob: It will hopefully answer some of the most exciting questions. How did the universe form in the early days? What are black holes? And finally, are we alone in this universe?