At the observatory, which has been planned and built for 26 years, researchers from the University of Tokyo have installed a unique 6.5-meter-diameter telescope optimized for infrared wavelengths, with which they will explore the nature of the universe and the origin of life.
Researchers are confident that with the help of the modern instrument, they can find an answer to the question of when galaxies were formed and what their current structure looks like.
The observatory's location in the Atacama Desert is ideal, because thanks to the region's Humboldt Current, the sky is almost always clear, a unique condition on Earth. On 90 percent of nights, the starry sky is clearly visible in particularly clean, dry desert conditions. Dry air makes observing with an infrared telescope particularly effective.
Japanese scientists also consider Tau's presence in the southern hemisphere an important advantage, so they can observe astronomical phenomena that cannot be seen from the northern hemisphere, MTI reported.
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