University researchers are looking forward to having a new vista on outer space.

The University of Sussex will be among the first research institutions to access data from what will be the world's most powerful astronomical survey telescope, whose development has just taken an important step forward.

The Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) project has selected a Russian company to design and build an extremely accurate surface for the telescope's mirror, using computer controlled surface-polishing techniques.

The process will take about 18 months.

When it is completed, the four metre-wide telescope will be the world's largest facility for ground-based astronomical survey work.

It will be equipped with the world's largest infrared camera and will enable astronomers to survey the heavens in the infra-red scale to an unprecedented depth, opening up an entirely new view of the universe.

The telescope is being built at a cost of more than £25 million and will become part of the European Southern Observatory's Cerro Paranal Observatory, based at an altitude of 2,635m, in the Atacama Desert in Chile.

The project is being financed by the UK's Joint Infrastructure Fund with an additional contribution from the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council through a consortium of 18 UK universities, including Sussex.

Sussex's reader in astronomy Robert Smith, a member of the consortium board, said: "The VISTA telescope will be able to map most of the Southern sky to unprecedented depth.

"It is unique among all existing or planned telescopes.

"I anticipate Sussex astronomers being involved in a variety of research collaborations based on its results."

Jon Loveday, who sits on the consortium's science committee with his colleague Seb Oliver, both from the University of Sussex, said: "Sussex will be among the first places to have access to the data."

www.sussex.ac.uk
www.vista.ac.uk