The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) has announced funding that will enable astronomers from the University of British Columbia (UBC), the Université de Montréal, and the Observatoire du Mont-Mégantic to support Canada's contribution to the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), the world's most powerful optical and infrared telescope.
The ELT, currently under construction in Chile's Atacama Desert by the European Southern Observatory (ESO), will have a 39-meter primary mirror, making it the largest visible-light telescope ever built. Canada is not a member of ESO, but this funding allows Canadian scientists to participate in the project through a partnership with the University of Oxford.
UBC astronomers will focus on developing advanced instrumentation for the ELT, including spectrographs and adaptive optics systems that correct for atmospheric distortion. The total CFI investment is part of a broader $24 million package for Canadian astronomy projects.
The telescope is expected to begin scientific operations later this decade, with the goal of studying exoplanets, dark matter, and the early universe. The Canadian contribution ensures that researchers at UBC and partner institutions will have access to the ELT's unprecedented observational capabilities.
