"Building the Future: Giant Magellan Telescope Rises in Tucson Lab"
The University of Arizona's Richard F. Caris Mirror Laboratory has been working for nearly 20 years to create huge mirrors for the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), which is set to become the world's most powerful land-based telescope. The GMT's mirrors, being made at the UA lab, are expected to render images up to 10 times sharper than the Hubble Space Telescope. The UA's involvement in the GMT project has had a significant economic impact, with the university winning about $100 million in contracts and expecting to have at least $250 million in contracts by project completion.