It was a bold idea - a telescope in space.

And it happened.

With the launching of the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990, astronomy crossed into a new frontier as astronomical phenomena, once only relegated to theory, suddenly became viewable to one of the world's most powerful space lenses.

The only catch - the idea didn't take flight overnight.

Lyman Spitzer, the astrophysicist who first proposed the idea, waited 44 years before his orbital observatory delved into the mysteries of space and time.

A similar story faces Douglas Richstone, chair of the astronomy department.

The University's astronomy department, along with seven other institutions, plans to construct the world's largest ground telescope yet. Known as the Giant Magellan Telescope or the GMT, the observatory will be a 100 times more powerful than Hubble and aims to peer into the deepest reaches of the universe unlike any other telescope. The estimated completion date: 2016. And that's if they can get the half a billion dollars they need on time.

"I may well be retired when the telescope is made," Richstone said, who will turn 67 when construction on the GMT finishes.

Lord of the Lenses

Like the Hubble Space Telescope, the GMT began with another bold idea, but one that stretches back even further to the founding of the astronomy department in 1856.

Administrators envisioned the University's first and only research division at the time to become the flagship of the school's scientific endeavors. Ever since, the department has pursued that task in large part through telescopes - the scientific backbone to all astronomy research.

From its beginnings with the now-defunct Detroit Observatory, to the recently completed Magellan Project - two towering observatories perched below the clear skies of the Andes Mountain in Chile - the hunt for the best astronomical hardware has led the department across the world and to build bigger and better telescope lenses. Now the trail heads toward the department's most ambitious venture despite the major costs and technological entanglements.

If their undertaking succeeds, the GMT will be the crown jewel among the department's collection of telescope lenses. Seven massive mirrors arranged in a honeycomb fashion, the overall aperture of the telescope measures at about 70 feet in diameter, making it four times more powerful than the current top telescopes. Just one of the 27 foot mirrors of the GMT eclipses the department's next largest telescopes, which work with a primary mirror only 21 feet in diameter.

For astronomers, it will be like putting on a fresh pair of glasses. A massive one to say the least.

"You will get a 100 times more light and a sharper and crisper image than other telescopes," Richstone said. "This is a big jump."

With the colossal light-gathering power of the telescope, planets from other solar systems, once shrouded in the glare from the stars they orbited, will finally come into focus and be visible. The telescope may even be able to detect faint terrestrial planets harboring life. It's just the tip of the iceberg for the GMT, which may also shed light on the formation of black holes and the existence of dark matter, among many other celestial subjects.

"The telescope will have enough resolution to start trying to find these things out," said Astronomy Prof. Lee Hartmann. "Theory just isn't enough."

But when Richstone and Hartmann talk about the impact the GMT will have on the astronomy department, they aren't strictly speaking about the scientific allure. Nor are they just hinting at the bitterness surrounding their looming retirements. They're really getting down to business.

Astropolitics

When Richstone and University faculty dedicated one of the Magellan Project telescopes on a 2000 December trip to Chile, then University President Lee Bollinger asked Richstone at the ceremony, "What research will you use these telescopes for?"

Richstone replied not with the goal of making any scientific breakthrough, but said, "I don't know. The main reason I wanted to be part of this project is to have intelligent young scientists in the department to tell me about their research as I get close to retirement."

The obvious point made to Bollinger - "Telescopes have a strategic place that goes beyond astronomy," Richstone said. "They are a tool to recruit young people. ... And you have to have the tools to bring them."

Because telescopes lie at the core of astronomy research, it's no surprise that the best in the business head where the best equipment goes.

And while star gazing through telescopes involves scientific calculations and measurements, it also hinges on politics.