Mexico proposed home for Large Millimeter Wave Telescope

17 Jun 2002

Plans for a joint U.S.-Mexican 5-year project to build in Mexico what would rank among the world's largest high-precision radiotelescopes were announced to astronomers assembled for the American Astronomical Society meeting. Astronomers from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and the Instituto Nacional de Astrofosica, Optica y Electronica in Puebla, Mexico, presented plans for a 50-meter radiotelescope -- dubbed the Large Millimeter Wave Telescope (LMT) -- which will be operating from a yet-to-be selected mountain site in Mexico.

The "Gran Telescopio Milimetrico" as it is known in Spanish, will provide a view of the southern sky that is relatively unexplored, and which includes the center of our Milky Way galaxy. "A Mexican location for the LMT will offer a much better view than we would have in the continental U.S.," says UMass astronomer Stephen Strom.