$2 Billion Telescope Equipped with Large Earth Finder for Astronomical Discoveries.
The Giant Magellan Telescope, one of the world's largest ground-based telescopes, is being built to image planets in other star systems to see if they are Earth-like and habitable. Equipped with a "Large Earth Finder" and "Near-Infrared Spectrograph," it will be able to directly image exoplanets and take spectra of their atmospheres to look for biosignatures. The telescope will have the widest field of view and best image quality of any extremely large telescope, and will work in conjunction with the James Webb Space Telescope and the Vera Rubin Observatory to extend a golden age of space and ground-based observing.