LA PALMA, Spain - Four giant telescopes developed under Japan's leadership have been completed on a Spanish island as part of an international effort to explore cosmic mysteries including black holes and dark matter.
A ceremony was held Thursday on La Palma in the Canary Islands to mark the completion of the telescopes, each equipped with a 23-meter reflector, ahead of the start of full observations, likely next year.
Takaaki Kajita, a distinguished university professor at the University of Tokyo, expressed hope that the telescopes would open a new important window into space.
The four telescopes are part of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory, or CTAO, an international project that will operate telescopes of different sizes on La Palma and at Paranal in Chile as a single observatory.
The telescopes will capture faint flashes of light produced when high-energy gamma rays from sources such as black holes and exploding stars enter Earth's atmosphere.
Analyzing these flashes, known as Cherenkov light, allows scientists to trace the rays to their sources, according to Hidetoshi Kubo, who leads the Japanese research group.
Each telescope has an ultrafast camera and can turn 180 degrees in 20 seconds, allowing it to quickly track sudden events in space.
Researchers say the telescopes will be able to study objects about 12 billion light-years away, offering a view of the universe just 1.6 billion years after its birth.
Masahiro Teshima, a University of Tokyo professor emeritus and a leading project member, said at a press conference after the ceremony that he hoped the observations using the telescopes would lead to the discovery of dark matter.
A total of 25 countries participate in the CTAO project, with around 30 Japanese institutions involved.
