Telescopes

VLA

An interferometer composed of 27 dishes laid out on 13 mile long train tracks.

Keck I and II

Based entirely in Hawaii, utilizes two 10m mirrors each composed of 36 hexagonal segments

FAST

Chinese telescope that boasts the largest filled-aperture for a radio telescope

Gran Telescopio Canarias

A 10.4m telescope located in Spain

Fermi Space Telescope

A gamma-ray telescope launched by NASA in 2008

INTEGRAL

A gamma-ray telescope launched by the European Space Agency in 2002

Large Binocular Telescope

Arizona based telescope, boasts twin 8.4m mirrors

Compton Observatory

Gamma ray telescope, one of NASA's Great Observatories, launched in 1991 and de-orbited in 2000

Spitzer Space Telescope

IR telescope, one of NASA's Great Observatories, launched in 2003, retired in 2009

James Webb Space Telescope

NASA's next flagship telescope, scheduled for launch in 2021, 6.5m reflector

Plank Observatory

Named after the scientist who derived the formula for black-body radiation, this telescope mapped the entire cosmic background radiation

Kepler Space Telescope

Space telescope who's primary mission was to find exoplanets, operational despite crippling malfunctions, recently retired

Hubble Space Telescope

The most versatile and famous space telescope, 2.4m reflector, NASA's current flagship telescope

Herschel Space Observatory

This IR telescope was named after the scientist who discovered IR radiation, at the time it was the largest IR telescope every launched

Gemini Observatory

Two 8.1m telescopes, one based in Hawaii and one based in Chile

Arecibo Observatory

World's largest radio telescope until 2016, located in Puerto Rico, utilized as a backdrop for several movies

Chandra Observatory

X-Ray telescope, one of NASA's Great Observatories, launched in 1999