The largest telescope that will ever be built*

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The asterisk is important. ■ AD: 👨‍💻 NordVPN's best deal is here: nordvpn.com/to... - with a 30-day money-back guarantee. ■ More on the ELT: @ESOobservatory 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 / @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 creativecommons... www.eso.org/pu...
First image of an explanet: www.eso.org/pu...
Stars orbiting the supermassive black hole: www.eso.org/pu...
VLT light path: www.eso.org/pu...
VLTI delay lines: www.eso.org/pu...
ELT render: www.eso.org/pu...
📽 PREVIOUS VIDEOS
Previously, in Arecibo: • How The Arecibo Telesc...
and in Parkes: • I took a ride on a mov...
🟥 MORE FROM TOM: www.tomscott.com/
(you can find contact details and social links there too)
📰 WEEKLY NEWSLETTER with good stuff from the rest of the internet: www.tomscott.c...
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👥 THE TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES: / techdif

Опубликовано:

26 сен 2024

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Комментарии : 3,6 тыс.

@TomScottGo Год назад

And the stars were beautiful. ■ AD: 👨‍💻 NordVPN's best deal is here: nordvpn.com/tomscott - with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

@melio0504 Год назад

@oshabot1646 Год назад

sorry I don't have cash

@minorii24 Год назад

half an hour??? we’re eating well tonight

@riparianlife97701 Год назад

This is your best video ever. Edges out your tightrope video.

@ftroop2000 Год назад

Were the stars really that clear? Or did you use a generic picture on the Internet? I have never seen them like that anywhere, especially in England, which even back in the 80's when you could see 20 so, now it's like 3 or 4

@ESOobservatory Год назад

It was a pleasure hosting you, Tom! What a great video. We love your enthusiasm and the way you explain the technical challenges behind building such large optical telescopes.

@Hailfire08 Год назад

You guys are awesome! I would love to visit at some point (I'm applying for PhDs in astronomy :)

@blacknwhitesalright 11 месяцев назад

May I have an extremely large optical telescope? I’ve had a rough time in life and I just feel like it would be a big help

@justinlipkin 11 месяцев назад

So their RU-vid tag is "ESOobservatory" but doesn't the "O" already stand for observatory?

@rowanjones3476 11 месяцев назад

@@justinlipkin’your chosen username is unavailable’ is something we can all relate to

@nelsonnicholson6175 11 месяцев назад

@@justinlipkin I mean, we say "ATM machine" all the time, why not ESO observatory?

@pattheplanter Год назад

Nice of Tom to put in a disclaimer that gifts from the Extremely Large Telescope will not influence his review of it. It makes me much more inclined to buying my ridiculously big telescopes from the Extremely Large Telescope people.

@maxmustermann5932 Год назад

My taxes pay for it.

@JeremyCCox Год назад

@@maxmustermann5932God that's so cool.

@Aceborn-Gaming Год назад

@@maxmustermann5932 It is funded by the European union.

@mortisCZ Год назад

Tom always helps me to rationally decide how to invest billions of dollars into optical instruments of unusual sizes.

@Sp4mMe Год назад

But money from NordVPN clearly influences his opinion of their scam ... err, service.

@theDebel1 11 месяцев назад

As a physicist, this is perhaps one of the best science communicator videos out there. Tom's enthusiasm and emphasis on the technical challenges AND achievements is outstanding! Thank you

@alwayshere6956 11 месяцев назад

He's so genuine

@Kalumbatsch 11 месяцев назад

This video is a physicist?

@FuckGoogle502 11 месяцев назад

@@Kalumbatsch He knows physics, not how to express them in human language. What do you think he is, an English teacher? :P

@SpicyTrifongo 11 месяцев назад

As a dude with a BS in something equally unrelated to astronomy I agree with you.

@ENikolaev 11 месяцев назад

Fisics*

@alphaadhito Год назад

The fact that ESO had at one time proposed an even bigger telescope called the *Overwhelmingly Large Telescope* says it all when you gave scientist to naming things

@adrianthoroughgood1191 Год назад

What else could you call some bigger than extremely large? I would go for ridiculously large, but that might not get funding.

@randomjapsi Год назад

@@adrianthoroughgood1191 massive telescope

@insu_na Год назад

Overwhelmingly Large Telescope Final Final Final Final Final For Real This Time Final (5)

@rofljohn23 Год назад

What about the ludicrously large telescope, or the LLT :D

@joshuacheung6518 Год назад

KISS principle

@marvinschmoll2648 Год назад

As a physicist watching this, please don't apologize for the analogy between radio waves and bass at 17:30. It's exactly accurate and a great example of science communication like so many other explainations in the video. Thank you for the great job on this one. Seems like it really paid off to redo the script as the final version is just amazing and worth every minute of watch time.

@anandsharma7430 Год назад

Hi, sorry to bother you, but can you tell me a set of google keywords to understand 18:45 - i.e. why "light interferometry wont work because there is not a computer fast enough and a clock fast enough to collect visible light data in terahertz range"? Thanks.

@zerentheunskilled Год назад

@@anandsharma7430 It means that our current computer technology isn't yet fast and accurate enough to be able to transfer and store the massive amount of data they are collecting with these telescopes on a large scale.

@yitzakIr Год назад

@@anandsharma7430(My guess) A terahertz frequency light wave means you would need to collect 10^12 readings per second. So your computer & hard drive would have to record a Terabyte per second. I googled and modern hard drives are in the hundreds of Megabytes per second.

@somebod8703 Год назад

@@yitzakIr Hard drives wouldn't necessarily be the problem. You can easily have some RAM of a few TB which you can write to with 64GB/s. For shorter samples, it could still be faster for specialized gear. But that's still a factor of 10'000 away from 500THz of the visible spectrum. You would also need more than one sample per cycle, if you want to do interferometry. Clock offest/jitter is a pain in the ass if you want to do interferometry. Probably much more of a hindrance than memory throughput. The latter one can be parallelized.

@geoff5623 Год назад

@@anandsharma7430similar problem to highspeed video cameras - recording hundreds of thousands of frames per second takes a lot of data so you can only store a short amount of realtime (e.g. a few seconds) to very fast storage on camera before storing it permanently to much slower storage on a computer (using hundreds of gigabytes of space). The Slow Mo Guys often talk about how they have to reduce the dimensions of the image they're recording when using the fastest framerates (and the fastest camera they've used lately only records in greyscale). If you also want to match up the footage from two cameras, they need to be very accurately in sync in order to capture frames at the exact same moment and to match them up properly. High speed cameras can often do this with a direct cable connection between them to sync their clocks, but can only be so far away from each other (like how USB or HDMI cables have limits to their length - the signal gets weaker and less precise over a long cable). For radio telescopes they can use very accurate atomic clocks to timestamp their observations and match them up later so no direct connection between multiple telescopes is needed, but light needs far more precision to make sure that two separate observations are from the exact same time (hence the elaborate and extremely precise mechanism between four light telescopes close to each other, compared to radio telescope observations made with telescopes from around the world).

@fireballgarcia1281 11 месяцев назад

One interesting thing I noticed was that you had a lot of people from different countries all working together for the sake of astronomy. It’s kinda touching to see people from around the globe working towards a very human endeavor

@Intamin 11 месяцев назад

That's the modern science community!

@ulalaFrugilega 10 месяцев назад

I thought that, too, and fretting even more about the petty outside world that seems to be busy destroying our kind and making the title come true...

@markbooth3066 10 месяцев назад

It's why Brexit has been such a disaster for U.K. Science. So many of my STFC colleagues have left since the 2016 vote, many because they no longer felt welcome here, others because funding and science opportunities started to dry up long before Article 13 was invoked. Even though the U.K. has now secured Associate status with Horizon Europe and Copernicus, I doubt we'll ever regain the leadership positions we once enjoyed.

@gregbailey45 10 месяцев назад

Funny how scientist's are more interested in science than politics.

@moneygrip32 10 месяцев назад

Europeans coming to the Americas, colonizing and commandeering the land from indigenous peoples, leveling the top of their mountains to build a telescope, all for the sake of astronomy. Leveling off a mountain top for coal, bad, leveling off a mountain top for science, good. Stealing land from natives to build communities, bad, stealing land to build telescopes, good.

@Vinemaple Год назад

Is this video a glimpse into Tom's future? Nearly 30 minutes long, a deeper and more complex treatment of the subject, so much production values that there are actual credits for the production team, something that definitely won't be coming out every Monday... and it's still Tom being Tom. I am here for this, even if I'm barely able to follow.

@mirzaahmed6589 Год назад

He's taking a break starting in January. He's made no promises that he'll even return.

@trbz_8745 Год назад

Reminds me of Veritasium's video style, which is a compliment.

@jocax188723 Год назад

If Tom converts to this format monthly, or even bimonthly, I think it'll be a sight to behold.

@erkinalp 11 месяцев назад

@@jocax188723 should be every 42 days, to please numberphiles

@joostparent3774 11 месяцев назад

I will miss Tom, but I hope he does what he wants to do. Even if that means he does not come back.

@adjsmith Год назад

9:37 Fun fact about the air conditioning in these big observatories: When doing optical observations, it's important for the air to be still and stable. Introducing a temperature gradient to the air can cause distortion in the image observed by the telescope. To avoid this, large observatories often keep the telescope chamber (the dome) chilled to the expected overnight temperature, so that when they open the telescope to the night air, there is as little gradient in air temperatures between the telescope and the night sky as possible.

@MeppyMan Год назад

Oh wow. That make sense.

@timconnors Год назад

The small 3.9m Anglo-Australian Telescope's dome has a diameter of only 30m. The dome's air conditioning system was 100kW in power. We were disadvantaged by the wind shutter leaving an opening that was only very slightly larger than the mirror itself, so you've just got a 4x4m opening to the sky. So there was a lot of heat picked up during the day in the Australian summers, but then only a very small opening to equalise the temperatures during the night, if it wasn't otherwise cooled.

@Markle2k 11 месяцев назад

The observer rooms are removed to the side and behind airlocks for similar reasons

@Conduit23 11 месяцев назад

Telescopes are just like me in the summer.

@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721 11 месяцев назад

So the thing where you go into a room that's too cold and you suddenly feel a bit weird, that happens to telescopes too?

@ReedHarston 11 месяцев назад

I had 8 minutes so I thought a Tom Scott video would be perfect. 15 minutes in I realized this wasn’t a standard Tom Scott video. 😅 What an incredible place, science, and engineering. And incredible work filming and presenting it. What an incredible vote of confidence in your team to invite you out to see the site!

@nffclacey 11 месяцев назад

I did the same then got so excited when I realised how long it was 😂

@icosthop9998 11 месяцев назад

L😂L

@jeffbrooks8024 Месяц назад

You should go to Western Australia and see the SKA radio telescope

@005AGIMA Год назад

Only Tom Scott can make a 5 minute video give 30 minutes worth of information. And only Tom Scott can make a 30 minute video feel like 5 minutes. Stunning work good sir. Stunning.

@suzyturquoiseblue- 11 месяцев назад

Well, half the video was his repeating that it will probably be the largest to ever be built.

@inspiringengineer 11 месяцев назад

The 'oh my goodness this thing is absolutly friggin gargantunly massive telescope' ;)@@suzyturquoiseblue-

@suzyturquoiseblue- 11 месяцев назад

@@inspiringengineer Yep.

@iwanttwoscoops 11 месяцев назад

@@suzyturquoiseblue-what?

@Thepher6 11 месяцев назад

You are saying exactly what I was thinking

@adrien5568 Год назад

A 30-minute video with Tom?! A blessing!

@patrickhanft Год назад

I so much hope, Tom will do more of these longer formats in the future - of course much less videos than today and whenever he'll be bored enough from his announced time off after this series here has ended. Because he is such a great storyteller and I'd love to see him take all the time needed for these exceptional stories he'll always be able to tell.

@Zoro4Swords Год назад

29 mins actually 😐

@DMacB42 Год назад

Let the bells ring out and the banners fly! It’s like five Tom Scott videos in one!

@acasccseea4434 Год назад

not many till we dont get any more

@screwaccountnames Год назад

He's switched into Veritasium Mode.

@Roumpebala 11 месяцев назад

I have been working for this Observatory for decades, I put my hands in so many things you showed here and so far it is the best video I have seen. Because of the quality of the explanations, because of the enthusiasm. In 30min you manage to cover a lot of things happening there (not all), that's remarquable. I am a bit disapointed to hear that you had to pay your fly ticket, but I guess ESO has not yet seen the importance of this kind of work for its communication. So a small message to those responsibles at ESO, please make it easier next time.

@Intamin 11 месяцев назад

It's not that, he paid his own way to show that he wasn't being influenced by ESO journalistically.

@Somerandom1922 9 месяцев назад

As Intamin said, there's a good chance that Tom insisted on paying his own way to stymie any potential concerns about his journalistic integrity. I don't know if ESO would have offered to pay, but this is how Tom has operated in the past. Whenever he's invited to see something that isn't available to the general public it can lead to some implications around trust and control, so paying his own way where possible helps mitigate this.

@PBeringer 7 месяцев назад

Somehow, I don't think someone with a monetised RU-vid channel with 6.5M subscribers is gonna be too worried about a return flight to Chile.

@RoseAbrams 6 месяцев назад

They probably offered to pay for it. It's just that Tom usually turns such offerings down in order not to make it an undeclared sponsorship.

@mydogsbutler Месяц назад

You guys are like wizards. As Arthur C. Clarke suggested, technology advanced enough is almost like magic. A question about the theoretical limits of optical astronomy. I've read in theory using the Sun for gravitational lens would allow scientists to see the surface of an exoplanet in Proxima Centuari B at an astonishing resolution of 10km. Does anyone know how theoretical space based interferometry optical telescopes (placed around the solar system rather than just earth) would compare to that? I'm curious to know the absolute limit of optical telescropes.

@linusk4132 Год назад

Concerning your worry about the length of the video in the newsletter: don't worry Tom. We like your videos because they are always as long as they need to be to fit all the information you have for us. And having such a detailed video once in a while is phenomenal.

@SirZeck Год назад

Ikr, it's not like he stretch it for watch time. I have no idea what he is talking about beyond surface level but the time flies quickly.

@TR-rz1xt Год назад

I can relate to this... keep hoping I'll absorb the difficult bits by osmosis.@@SirZeck

@mumblbeebee6546 Год назад

Hear, hear! (erm… read: read!)

@jcKobeh Год назад

I clicked without checking the length, and when I got to a TITLE CARD I thought something up and checked. Won't be able to watch on the ten minutes of lunch I have left, BUT super excited for a long form Tom Scott video, I kinda wish they were more frequent

@apveening Год назад

AMEN! If a video needs to be an hour because of all the information, make it an hour. I regularly watch 40+ minute videos by somebody else and he is also regularly told to take the time necessary.

@armaanmonnink6790 Год назад

Tom, in your newsletter you said you were worried that your audience woudnt be able to cope with this long video. Don’t be, its incredible! It is one of the best produced, best told stories I’ve seen and you should be proud of yourself! Thank you Tom and team for all the incredible work you have done the past few years and i am going to miss you!

@userjjb Год назад

Why are you going to miss him? Is something happening?

@armaanmonnink6790 Год назад

@@userjjb If I understood it correctly, at the end of the year the regular videos will unfortunately end and Tom will take a (well deserved) brake.

@MonkeyJedi99 Год назад

This didn't FEEL like a long video, because it kept my interest the whole way through.

@windharp Год назад

After 5 minutes of the video I thought: "Finally a real Tom Scott quality video again, and not a rather shallow short one". I know that this is much more work, and not for all topics it makes sense to put together a 30min video, but _this_ _is_ _great_.

@ragabulle Год назад

This is the best documentary I've seen in many years.

@Mattthewanderer 11 месяцев назад

I don't know what kind of production team you have to help with all this but it is easy to recognize a colossal and effective effort. This felt like a ready-made presentation from the BBC. Thank you for all the time you put into this!

@mhenhawke5093 7 месяцев назад

He uses Spielberg and Lucas.

@EcceJack Год назад

As an astrophysicist, I am ............very, very, very, very, VERY jealous of Tom 😂😂 And also happy that he decided to shine a spotlight on one of the coolest engineering things I've ever known about (i.e. the world's largest telescopes)

@meloney Год назад

Imagine having such a thing in your garden (preferibly on a mountain garden ig). On a side note: we really need to change our naming tendencies in the future. Otherwise the Overwhelmingly Large Telescope might be built as its own entity after all :)

@bernardomoreira Год назад

As a studying astrophysicist, me too!!!

@wernerviehhauser94 Год назад

I only got to work with VLT data around 20 years ago, never got to actually go there. But I got to see PARSEC and SPIFFI being built.

@ChristofferLund Год назад

This video is amazing. One of my favourites from him

@loganmontgomery1955 Год назад

how many years of school did it take for you to make astrophysics your career

@Thisath100 Год назад

It's easy to tell something is insanely cool when Tom Scott gives it a 30 minute video. This was soooo good, and I love how you are consistently incredibly respectful and awed by the work the people you meet do. They all seem so scarily smart.

@alun7006 Год назад

They *are* scarily smart. This is the stuff the smartest people in the world work on. Right on the bleeding edge of what humanity knows.

@scottg3192 Год назад

Didn't even realise it was 30mins... That's how good it is

@DiegatusStudios 11 месяцев назад

That's why I love the documentaries of Tom. Slow pace, explaining and showing everything as detailed as possible, admitting there could be errors on the information so we don't accept this as the ultimate library, everything set so great that a 30min video feels like a 10min one. Your videos are such a relaxing and learning experience.

@whozz Год назад

The idea that we are able to spray down 7g of aluminum, pretty much atom by atom, on such a large surface is insane

@rallychamp2003 Год назад

Well you say we, but sometimes I miss with my deodorant spray.

@jimi02468 Год назад

What fraction of the thickness of an aluminum foil (0.016 mm) would that layer of aluminum be?

@whozz Год назад

@@rallychamp2003 hahahahaha

@whozz Год назад

@@jimi02468 they said in the video it's about 1000 atoms of thickness, which is roughly 0.00025 millimeters (or about 1/64 the thickness of an aluminum foil).

@webarnesca Год назад

O.625% of the thickness of aluminum foil, if my math is correct.

@Jonathan_Corwin Год назад

I'm glad Tom clarified he took no payment for this video, because I could easily have been swayed into buying a gigantic telescope had ESO sponsored it

@xavierlanglands9486 11 месяцев назад

This video is paced to perfection, it felt like a 5-10 minute journey where every bit of information led to something new and built upon the rest, this is definitely one of your best!

@PedroAbilleira Год назад

Hello Tom and the team! I must say, this video is absolutely fantastic!

@NicolaiWeitkemper Год назад

Oh, astrobiology next to a telescope! It was meant to be!

@oliviapg Год назад

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the Atacama (or parts of it) is the driest place on the planet, no?

@unnamellie Год назад

Years???

@queeny5613 Год назад

@@oliviapgyep it is

@Vinemaple Год назад

It just lives under rocks? That are sitting on the surface? That seems incredibly precarious! There must be regular katabatic winds coming down from the Andes across the desert to the sea just a few miles away, right?

@Chogborts Год назад

It's insane to me that this was all funded, built, staffed, and executed purely out of curiosity and human progress. There's no motive beyond wanting to know what's in the great beyond. And you can tell that every single person Tom interviewed is incredibly passionate about their work too.

@serpentine1983 11 месяцев назад

There is, finding out how gravity works or if "our" theories are correct, could make techonological advances. In some areas. ALSO getting ourselves into trouble create advances in technology, though I can't think in what way it would benefit us a cart that has a nonometer precision... Maybe in advanced CNC's machines... I can think of ways on how to use it....

@Justplanecrazy25 11 месяцев назад

It was the same way when I visited the LHC back in 2013. Asking questions purely for the sake of knowledge. Isn't it something?

@username6338 11 месяцев назад

There is great long-term value to be motivated by here. You probably refer to the short-term profit interest that has been very popular in the last two centuries though.

@Chrome2105 11 месяцев назад

Projects like these show why public funding and taxes are very important for progress.

@WalterBurton 11 месяцев назад

Yup. Curiosity. This is, to me, one of the fundamental tenets of what it means to be humane. Curiosity implies a certain humility, and a certain amount of patience, regardless of the social affect/expression. Curiosity isn't in-and-of-itself a virtue, but it's an important part of being a decent human. I guess we call this "necessary, but not sufficient"? :-)

@falc410 11 месяцев назад

When I worked at ESO as a student, we already made jokes about the naming of the telescopes. Still, one of my best and most interesting jobs I ever had. Loved it, sadly I didn't get to visit the VLT but my parents did (worked for ESO too).

@ArcaneMagickaBeam Год назад

I have an entirely new appreciation for the scientists and engineers who put these large telescopes together now. Way more complex than I had imagined.

@AstolfoGayming Год назад

I just finished watching and.. Honestly, the precision with which those machines work is insane. I am having trouble fathoming that humanity can be that precise. It seems crazy to me

@longiusaescius2537 Год назад

@AstolfoGayming Fate Secondary?

@UnremarkableKevin Год назад

Yet the temperature in my shower is either freezing cold or scalding hot.

@unicyclingistheshit Год назад

It's not so much the precision that gets me but when you combine that precision with the sheer scale of the components. It's mind-blowing

@nickel36 Год назад

@@UnremarkableKevin you just need all that precision to adjust the tap.

@markpitts5194 Год назад

I know. I have a couple of machines that are good to 0.001" (well they were when new). But how did we get here from rubbing sticks together. How do we make a more accurate machine with a less accurate one ?!?!? Makes my brain itch.

@GatorEggs 11 месяцев назад

15:03 Wow… this is kind of like a physical active noise cancellation but instead of sound it’s cancelling out “atmospheric noise”. That’s just incredible precision

@JMurph2015 10 месяцев назад

not just that, the errors and corrections have to be computed in two dimensions 😉

@eriktempelman2097 11 месяцев назад

Fun fact: if you plot the size of the largest telescope against time, from 1900 to today, you get a fairly good linear correlation... that completely fails to predict the ELT's size!

@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721 11 месяцев назад

That's what makes it extreme.

@sponge1234ify 11 месяцев назад

Statistical Anomaly FTW

@Lscott-fk2sn 11 месяцев назад

Is there a website where i can see the list of largest optical telescopes throughout time?

@rkalle66 11 месяцев назад

@@Lscott-fk2sn Just search Wikipedia for list of large telescopes and sort by "built".

@eriktempelman2097 11 месяцев назад

(It's a great example of how extrapolating can fxck up.)

@cookie_space Год назад

This was such a well written storytelling. It explained every piece in detail without losing the grand picture of why the pieces are important for the story. It really made this feel exactly like your usual 5 Minutes ones, just a little bit longer

@korganrocks3995 Год назад

Yeah, if I hadn't seen the length when I first clicked on it, I'd have assumed about 10, maybe 15 minutes had passed by the time it was over.

@bambuwuzled 11 месяцев назад

3:00 this man is the most worthy to wear one of those galaxy hoodies

@tayzonday Год назад

Dude I was just thinking “it would be awesome to go to Chile someday and stargaze.” Thank you for doing it so I can just look at my phone ✊🙏😂

@SkipperMacky Год назад

No you were not.. c'mon, fess up. That didn't happen😏

@Skillseboy1 Год назад

😂

@Vacated204 Год назад

*I go down to Chile to stargaze*

@origami5834 Год назад

Singer/songwriter, #1 Valiant fan, *and* a Tom Scott enjoyer? What can't this man do

@mpk6664 Год назад

Love seeing you everywhere I go. Legend.

@lonelyandforgottenisthe Год назад

Knowing that I have a 29 minute Tom Scott video to watch after these last 2 exams is all the strength I need. High-quality, interesting, informative, humorous; an unbelievably amazing reward.

@ThatOpalGuy Год назад

enjoy them while they last.

@ferretyluv Год назад

Exams already? Does your school work on a trimester system or something? The fall semester just started!

@Blopa12 11 месяцев назад

I remember sending Tom an email about 3 or 4 years ago telling him about this telescope and other cool things to see in Chile that I thought would be worthy of a video. I know the invitation this time came from ESO, but I like to think I had something to do with him making this. Love from Chile!🇨🇱

@seanmurphy3753 10 месяцев назад

Love your country Blopa12. Visited only one time but looking forward to coming back! I bet you did have something to do with Tom's visit! Congrats.

@RadiantMistborn42 Год назад

Tom Scott could make a full length (2+ hr) documentary about literally anything and I would watch every minute of it

@djhakase Год назад

Tom's retiring from RU-vid soon, presumably so he can live out that dream of documenting science that can't be neatly contained in a

@chrisstone1710 Год назад

Tom and Alec (from Technology Connections) are two of a very small group of people in the world that can make me interested in literally anything for an hour.

@yutahkotomi1195 Год назад

@@djhakase Isn't he just taking a break, not retiring?

@SellymeYT Год назад

@@chrisstone1710 I'd include Jon Bois, but he's started getting unsatisfied with only doing a single hour.

@djhakase Год назад

@yutahkotomi1195 I believe he's no longer committing to fortnightly releases. I've come to expect CGPGrey levels of output from RU-vidrs once they no longer commit to a schedule. That is effectively retirement.

@zackfelker Год назад

I didn’t realize until now how special my astronomy coursework dealing with telescopes like this really was until now. You get desensitized to the wonder.

@CJVale Год назад

I think the focus on the mathematics also takes away from the wonder, it becomes almost mechanical for us when you study it in depth

@snipers_nightmare Год назад

What course are you doing if you don't mind me asking?

@GammaFn. Год назад

@@CJVale The focus on mathematics has only added to my wonder.

@XH13 Год назад

One of the physics exam I took to gain access to an engineering school was about interferometry and the VLT. The subject was interesting enough I still remember it 25 year later, even if I'm unable to do that kind of maths anymore.

@CJVale Год назад

@spookyspoon4192 I studied astrophysics, I graduated ten years ago, actually. When I was doing the maths, because that was what I was good at, it made it very mechanical to me. It did make me appreciate the conceptual lectures more though. I was actually in a lecture where they were explaining the ELT in its concept stage, it's nice to see the building actually being built

@microm4n 11 месяцев назад

That did not feel like a 30 minute video - in a good way! I was so engaged for the whole thing. What a masterpiece of STEM. This will never be obsolete. I can't wait to visit it if it ever becomes a monument.

@diazinth 8 месяцев назад

with some luck, it will become redundant within our lifetimes

@sergiorestrepo6657 Год назад

How does Tom keep finding this bigger than life projects to make videos about? It's incredible. They make me feel amazed at what humanity is capable of. So many other sources just make me feel like humans do it all wrong, but Tom's videos are not like that at all. Thank you Tom.

@Egilhelmson Год назад

Nowadays, people find him to make videos about their larger than life stuff. What they will do when he takes his upcoming sabbatical will be “interesting”.

@RalseiGaming Год назад

tom scott had a google doc where you could submit suggestions on places to go

@ThatOpalGuy Год назад

he has to finish his run as large as possible.

@alun7006 Год назад

@@TwoTreesStudiowhat qualifies you to make a statement like that?

@ferretyluv Год назад

He asks people to send ideas in, that’s how.

@talinwarhaft--thu Год назад

I love how Tom Scott-the man who has been to Resolute and Svalbard-describes the Atacama desert as the most desolate place he's ever been.

@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721 11 месяцев назад

But it's not as bad as going to Slough.

@FallingofftheGrid 11 месяцев назад

@@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721🤣

@blakksheep736 6 месяцев назад

Is this before or after he went to Antarctica?

@andrewdickins2 11 месяцев назад

I work for a company based in North Wales that are manufacturing some of the mirrors for this telescope! Large elliptical mirrors with a surface form error specified to less than 20 nm error. It's cool to see a video update on how the whole structure is going like this

@nielskersic328 Год назад

On one hand I’m sad we’re reaching the end of the series, but Tom has been treating us to some of his best work recently. This was amazing Tom and everyone involved 👏

@HailHydra27 Год назад

Not ending, just slowing down

@comicus01 11 месяцев назад

What the other guy said. I think it's more like he's going to take a vacation/sabbatical, then return at some point in the future after he recharges.

@johnmg88 11 месяцев назад

Yea, his description of the future sounded like some special subjects every now and then rather than weekly 5min episodes. If this is anything to go by I'm actually looking forward to the future now.

@The_Murdoch Год назад

My company did all the steel design work for a few large telescopes and the accuracy and special things we have to do for it is insane. We did one before computers and some of the older guys still have stacks of books that they used for checking the geometry of it all.

@MrDominoMan 11 месяцев назад

I had no idea about these tunnels, incredibly precise carriages and mirrors under that facility. That blows my mind. Thank you Tom for creating this masterpiece of a video ❤

@GoldAndBlue 11 месяцев назад

I just thought of a bad joke... He was really there to see the "train carriages" that centralize the four light sources into one... 😂

@albertmagician8613 11 месяцев назад

I worked at the computer control of the mirror in the tunnel. The position is precise to nanometers on a distance of 60 m. Fokker Space in the Netherlands.

@DodderingOldMan Год назад

I honestly find stuff like this very moving. Humans are deeply flawed and occasionally horrible and vicious creatures... but when we work hard, put our minds to something and cooperate, we can forge great wonders.

@AlphaGeekgirl Год назад

Some humans 😉

@sjsomething4936 11 месяцев назад

I was thinking a very similar thing as I watched the video… humanity at its best when trying to grasp our place in the universe, the nature of it and why things are the way they are. We really can do some amazing things when we work together. Wonderment and cooperation that leads to knowledge versus strife, violence greed and jealousy.

@sjsomething4936 11 месяцев назад

@@AlphaGeekgirlyeah, unfortunately that’s a valid observation.

@Sirder 11 месяцев назад

Do you believe in GOD DodderingOldMan?

@DodderingOldMan 11 месяцев назад

@@Sirder Nope.

Год назад

We are so incredibly privileged to have these avant-garde scientific facilities in our country Chile, hopefully it will continue to attract people to Astronomy and Astro Engineering careers...

@LuisMunoz-ee1uh 11 месяцев назад

como dijo un sabio, somos el mejor país de chile, saludos desde high bridge, london

@ot0m0t0 11 месяцев назад

Mujica? Croatian descent?

@attractivegd9531 11 месяцев назад

Also Moreau, prob french@@ot0m0t0

@Agustin_R Месяц назад

@@ot0m0t0we have a lot of Croatian blood, specially in the south of Chile, but Mujica is a Basque last name, from Spain

@franksantana9553 Год назад

So, no one will mention the Spanish Rickroll at 27:56 For the curious, he says, "No voy a renunciar a ti," which is "never gonna give you up" 😂

@LuisMunoz-ee1uh 11 месяцев назад

yesss! finally someone else notices, i though i was the only one lmao

@franksantana9553 11 месяцев назад

@@LuisMunoz-ee1uhjajajajajaja! Me too

@EyalBrown Год назад

I aspire to one day have the overwhelming confidence of a man wearing a galaxy print hoodie to work on a telescope. Amazing video, Tom, one of your best ever imo! Exactly as in-depth as it needs to be and remain comprehensible and enjoyable.

@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721 11 месяцев назад

And he totally pulled off that hoodie.

@vadymg8356 10 месяцев назад

Nice to get know that humanity civilization is busy not just with destroying itself :)

@deloptin545 Год назад

22:56 "The UV index is just... yes" great line

@tobiasviby Год назад

For something less scientific, I work for the company that did the heating for those telescopes, all the way back in Sweden 😊 Amazing to see these feats of engineering!

@hanslehmann2124 11 месяцев назад

About a year ago I head the pleasure of taking an engineering tour of the Sistine Chapel of astronomy, the Mt. Wilson Observatory near Los Angeles. The dome on their 100" telescope is also designed to rotate to follow the progression of stars throughout the night, except the entire observation deck, the control desk, all that stuff, rotates with it. When they spin the dome and you're inside you swear that the telescope is pivoting rather than the room you're in. It's remarkably quiet and completely smooth, an amazing accomplishment considering it was built about a century ago.

@JamesOKeefe-US Год назад

A masterclass in science communication. I am awestruck at every element of these incredible machines. The human Ingenuity and hard work to make it all happen is inspiring! Thank you Tom!

@rodrigo53 Год назад

That party music analogy was elite 😂 Never heard of it before. I’m glad you came to Chile. I know it’s an exhausting and expensive trip from the UK, BUT if you ever come with a lot of time, you’ll find multiple sources of very different content in just one road trip north to south or the other way around. I hope we treated you well, you did an amazing job. Cheers, Tom.

@Ariffarhanable 11 месяцев назад

it is honestly so fun to see someone be as passionate as Tom in sharing knowledge to his audience

@alystair Год назад

Delaying the light beams physically with such accuracy without bringing readings into the digital domain prematurely is breathtaking. Thank you so much for your brilliant reporting your ongoing channel activity will be missed but not forgotten.

@walterroux291 Год назад

As a photographer whose built cameras before and a penchant for light, thank you for taking me on a tour of what are some of the largest and best camera ever made? Or certainly one of them. The precision is on another level.

@gordonrichardson2972 Год назад

Most large telescopes are operated mostly for spectroscopy rather than photography (though they can do both).

@walterroux291 Год назад

@@gordonrichardson2972 just as well that I don't build massive telescopes! 🔭 But thanks for that factoid.

@Sekir80 Год назад

@@walterroux291 Never late to start! ;)

@walterroux291 11 месяцев назад

@@Sekir80 I do actually want to get a telescope, once I've moved to the countryside!

@Sekir80 11 месяцев назад

@@walterroux291 Great idea! I already have mine, but I had to move to a flat so very rarely use it. If you have any idea what you are most interested in looking for (planets, stars, nebulae) I can guide you to select a scope for your needs.

@spankduncan1114 10 месяцев назад

Blows me away that there are humans who can figure this out and build such amazing machines. They are the virtuosos of discovery, design and construction.

@fredinit 8 месяцев назад

As Tom said.. .Lots of Maths!

@Ariridesbikes Год назад

The residence was also used for exterior shots and for concept art for the "Perla de las Dunas Hotel" in the James Bond movie Quantum of Solace, the movie might not be that good, but the residence makes for an amazing setting. What an amazing trip and video!

@organologist Год назад

I was just wondering this! Thanks for confirming :D

@mattdaily816 Год назад

Chilean telescope sites are unreal - so cool to see the tech being deployed there. We operate several robotically (LCOGT) at Cerro Tololo and indeed it was the best sky I'd ever seen in my life, even at only about 7k feet. This was a fascinating glimpse into some more impressive projects!

@mephistoxd2627 Год назад

As a physicist I don't think the comparisons are actually that bad. Yes, they are not 100% accurate, but they get the point across, and the fundamental principles are, if not the same, very similar. If you want to be accurate, there is no way around just doing the math, which is way beyond the scope of a video like this, or it's target demographic. So well done.

@heaslyben 11 месяцев назад

I didn't know the giant laser adaptive optics were applied at M2! I had always, for no good reason, assumed it was at the big mirror. I love it. Great. Thanks!

@polinanikulina Год назад

Oh, half an hour! How delightful! Everything about this observatory is utterly fascinating and I'm so glad Tom and the staff show and explain everything in such minute detail!

@paulkinzer7661 Год назад

This is a topic I have some knowledge of, as an astronomy educator, amateur astronomer and astrophotographer. I'm not an absolute expert in any of these, but have enough knowledge to know when something is 'off' when it comes to explanation. I can usually spot at least a little inaccuracy in reporting in this field, and I'm happy to say that there was none here. Tom, you really do your research, and then find ways to explain things that might be extremely complex in ways that pretty much anyone can understand. I know that already, having watched you for years, but I've been following developments in telescope technology for even longer, and have watched as the VLT, ELT, and the OWLT progressed from ideas on paper to where they are now. Knowing you got all of this right gives me confidence that all the other topics you cover have the same attention to accuracy, which is something I cannot say for others I follow; even the ones i really like.

@gregmckay666 11 месяцев назад

What a fantastic video Tom! As an amateur astronomer, I found this video very educational. And I learned something I never knew. at 15:10, where you are talking about the adaptive optics and the 4 lasers, you mentioned that the adaptive optics distorts the M2 secondary mirror. I always thought it was changing the M1 primary mirror. Learned something new today. Thanks again!

@liamtahaney713 Год назад

When tom retires from weekly videos, hopefully we still get occasional long videos like this

@LiiMuRi Год назад

I work at a large scale facility (in this case a synchrotron light source), and I still find it amazing that these kinds of places can be designed, built and operated successfully. There are soooo many small and big things that have to be considered and made to work that a single person could not even understand it all. Truly something only possible by human co-operation.

@kagitsune 11 месяцев назад

As an engineering student, I find it very motivating. There is a niche for each of us. Cheers. ❤

@callumchamberlain183 11 месяцев назад

Is it Harwell! That thing is awesome!

@DanielVerberne 11 месяцев назад

Reminds me of the James Webb Space Telescope and my learning that it's launch and setup involved several hundred unique single points of failure yet thanks to mountains of iterative testing; the scientists and engineers actually pulled it off.

@TLMuse 11 месяцев назад

I'm involved with the Rubin Observatory (an 8 m telescope being built elsewhere in Chile), and you articulated perfectly my ongoing wonder at seeing the project coming to fruition. It's amazing and deeply moving that so many people from so many cultures can come together to build something so far beyond the capacity of a single person or even a small group of people to fully understand. -Tom

@garybarr1045 11 месяцев назад

Exactly! Let's get going! We have so much work to do!

@legitgopnik8431 11 месяцев назад

I can't believe a video of such supreme quality is free to watch!

@marvindebot3264 Год назад

When Tom has a 30-minute video up you know it's going to be special.

@oscarn- Год назад

One of the most interesting things is that the Residence alone would be a good source for multiple 30-minute videos. And yet, this had it all. One of the best Tom Scott videos ever!

@frombrasilwithlove 11 месяцев назад

we've been in ESO a couple of months ago and was fantastic. Unfortunately we couldn't get in, but being there was a dream come true. cheers from Brasil!

@daanwilmer Год назад

A 29 minute video of geeking out *extremely* hard (pun not intended) over these huge telescopes? Tom, that was AWESOME! You made my day!

@Alex-cw3rz Год назад

All I know about the Atacama desert is that when Top Gear was there Richard Hammond was the smallest living organism in the desert.

@raydunakin 11 месяцев назад

The extreme precision required, and the tech needed to achieve it, are just mind-boggling. It can't even imaging how people can create such a marvel.

@Ben_R4mZ Год назад

Longer fun videos like this one going in-depth on a particular topic, while releasing videos less often could be an incredible balance for Tom and his team moving forwards

@jamesknapp64 Год назад

I agree

@alun7006 Год назад

A half-hour deep dive like this a few times a year would be very satisfying.

@Edramon53 Год назад

Not just reaching the limits of technology, I think they're reaching the limits of size-related adjectives.

@massimoplances5877 11 месяцев назад

A 30 minutes video? Not an easy subject but so clearly explained that time passed without being noticed. Short format is good when things are simple to show, but in this case longer size is perfect. Great job.

@millennialchicken Год назад

If Tom makes a video over 15 minutes, you know its gonna be a real good time

@AidanGeeMedia Год назад

Tom Scott blessing us with a 29 minute video to start the week off right 🙌

@fr57ujf 7 месяцев назад

One of the best technical overview I've ever watched. Thank you.

@wirdy1 Год назад

I still remember to this day travelling through remote Northumberland at 2am, having to stop in a lay-by to just look at the wonderful sight of a clear sky with almost zero light pollution. I can only imagine what it's like on that mountain-top in Chile.

@fernandoschuindt1665 Год назад

8:52 the VLT mirror shape is parabolic, not spherical. I think he meant to simplify.

@user-em8fq2ev4b 11 месяцев назад

As a physicist, that explanation of low frequency bass sound travelling further is exactly on point! And it also shocked myself, I never really put much thought into it and always assumed the people far away were listening to the heavy bass music... I guess I just don't really care about music, or what people far away are listening to in general

@kyleranderson5557 Год назад

Holy gosh… I thought it would be a 5 minute video but when I saw a half hour I got extremely excited. Let’s goooooo I’m here for this. Toms videos always end too soon it seems.

@chrisalan5610 Год назад

I love how most of the time these facilities are built with cutting edge engineering , and then occasionally “yeah we needed to block out light here so we threw a curtain on it”

@cephalopad Год назад

I must have exclaimed, "That's insane!" a dozen times while watching this video. I had no idea there were optical telescopes of this size, complexity, and precision. Thanks to Tom for leaving me flabbergasted.

@MaxArceus Год назад

Really? Never seen any videos, articles, or anything about them before..?

@Lightningbomb33 Год назад

I'd certainly seen nothing of this scale, or how they work, for that matter. The degree of accuracy is amazing.@@MaxArceus

@MaxArceus Год назад

@@Lightningbomb33 I mean, it very much is, but I'm surprised, as there's been talk about ELT for like.. a decade now, endless videos about it. And VLT even longer, the thing's been in operation for nearly 30 years. So, as a person who's apparently interested in that, I'm not sure how you'd never learned about it prior :P

@korganrocks3995 Год назад

@@MaxArceusThere's a difference between knowing there are "large telescopes" and seeing a a telescope with an 8-meter mirror that's only one of several such telescopes working in tandem with precision measured in nanometers. I've read about these things before, and I was also blown away by some of the things in this video.

@GeneralKenobi69420 Год назад

>I must have exclaimed, "That's insane!" a dozen times while watching this video Tell me youre American without telling me you're American

@cactusthestupid7222 Год назад

It's neat that they sync up the telescopes using actual physical tunnels and mirrors! I love when things are analogue, and this is such a fun example of something that's only possible to do physically!

@MatthijsvanDuin Год назад

Ah, Scott actually mentions that possibility near the end of the video.

@thespacedingoking Год назад

Original commentor was talking in the present tense, not future, fyi.

@hedgehog3180 11 месяцев назад

@@MatthijsvanDuin There is a very real possibility that this might never be possible to do digitally, it probably isn't possible with traditional computers at least.

@MatthijsvanDuin 11 месяцев назад

@@hedgehog3180? Computers are the least relevant obstacle here, especially since the computation doesn't have to be done in real time when doing interferometry digitally, the EHT records data onto HDs and then later combines the data. The volume of data to be recorded/processed also does not in itself depend directly on the wavelength being captured, just on the bandwidth, e.g. EHT operating at 230 GHz records several 2 GHz bands at 4 Gsps each, with a final total data rate of 64 Gbps. That's still a lot but certainly not an absurd data rate.

@mistercohaagen 11 месяцев назад

It's reassuring that in all the chaos of humanity, there are a handful of us focused on something actually important... like understanding anything about our base reality. If only more of us could be mobilized towards these goals. If only more of us were interested in these goals at all.

@Thebestdruid Год назад

I'm 28. When I was in highschool, I thought I was incredibly smart and could easily handle any job. Now here I am, watching this video, feeling utterly humbled by the level of complexity and precision that these engineers and scientists operate with. Truly incredible, thank you Tom Scott.

@Fid0n Год назад

Wow, I just want to say a big THANK YOU for making this video longer than usual! It's such a treat to have more time to dive into the content and really absorb all the valuable information. Not only was it incredibly fun to watch, but it was also super educational. Your efforts are greatly appreciated, and I'll definitely be coming back for more of your awesome content. Keep up the fantastic work!

@tompepper4789 11 месяцев назад

Analog! Amazing to learn that both the most advanced analog and digital technologies work together to make this advanced science possible. Thanks, Tom and NordVPN.

@farrance Год назад

if only every sponsored could be done like toms. so clean and polite as well as using the right product

@QuantumHistorian 11 месяцев назад

To expand on what tom said at 26:50. The faintness that can be detected with a telescope scales with the area of its primary mirror (or the sum of all the primary mirrors in an interferometer set up). The resolution (how accurately it can pinpoint were something is) depends on the largest distance between two points on the mirror. That's why interferometry is so powerful, it essentially replaces a full, solid mirror with a few small ones scattered along the edges. Which is why radio-telescopes can claim to be "as big as the earth" when it comes to resolution, because that's the distance they span. But there's no such shortcut for faintness, you simply need a big surface area one way or another.

@VictorQuesada-bl1xk 5 месяцев назад

That was a truly helpful comment, thanks!

@bripslag 11 месяцев назад

Great video, Tom! You have a knack for explaining highly technical things in a simple manner without dumbing down the subject matter to the point of uselessness. And your enthusiasm for your various subjects is contagious, much like that shown by Destin on Smarter Every Day. Thank you for teaching and entertaining us.

@dogevid Год назад

It’s honestly sad that we won’t see any more large telescopes.

@dx-ek4vr Год назад

Maybe we'll get larger telescopes built out in space. NASA has proposals to build one on the Moon

@michagrill9432 Год назад

@@dx-ek4vrtom cant visit that one tho 😂

@kolper6799 Год назад

Every end is new begining. And when things get obsolete...well history is made, not a dissaster report.

@sergiorestrepo6657 Год назад

@@michagrill9432The telescope on the moon that I'll never get to visit*

@SuperZura91 Год назад

@@michagrill9432 Just NordVPN to it bro.

@TheYorkRose Год назад

As an astro grad and visitor to the Atacama, great vid - and also well done for just managing to get any usable footage/interviews at all at that altitude without more acclimatising 😁

@litebkt 8 месяцев назад

I lived in the Atacama for a year. There is no plant life, no animal life, not even a lichen to be seen. Excellent video.

@computer_toucher Год назад

Love that ladder climb on the structure that was transported, if I remember correctly Scott wouldn't have done that so casually a few years ago. I guess all the half unwilling exposition therapy over the years has helped :)

@gillie-monger3394 Год назад

This 'long' video format is great! I prefer the more in-depth explorations of a topic, especially when they are as important and interesting as this Tom. From an engineering point alone these structures are fascinating, add to that the scale and importance of the scientific work being done? Awesome. Thanks for sharing.

@CleoCat75 11 месяцев назад

This was AMAZINGLY educational, holy cow. So much info in a short time and in a fun manner! Loved this one! Did not expect to enjoy all 29 minutes of it, very nice!!!

@daniwalmsley611 11 месяцев назад

Astronomer here, really appreciate the level of detail and accuracy here, when you’re watching a video about something you don’t know it’s very difficult to tell if it’s a really accurate video or if the person is just being confidently wrong. It’s always reassuring to watch Tom Scott videos on subjects I am familiar with as it gives me confidence to trust the videos I'm not