Small yet Extremely Large

This aerial photo, taken in January, 2025 shows ESO's Extremely Large Telescope under construction in Chile's Atacama Desert. The ELT will be the largest optical telescope on Earth once finished by the end of this decade. The telescope is located in Cerro Armazones, a hill on the Atacama Desert which is almost 3000 meters above sea level. Cerro means "mountain" or "hill" in spanish, while the term "armazones" usually refers to a "scafolding". The hill is indeed the scaffolding of the ELT. Thanks to its height and remote location, far from sources of light polution, and the clear skies of the desert, it provides one of the Earth's best windows to the Universe.