#1 Likely to involve the U. of Arizona's Steward Observatory, the research arm of UA’s Department of Astronomy. The construction of Steward Observatory was dedicated in 1923. The 36” diameter Newtonian telescope was the first to have been built using all American-made products, and it was built on a then isolated patch of University land—a former ostrich farm. The UA’s tradition of excellence in space sciences has only continued. In 2015, the National Science Foundation ranked UA’s College of Science number one among observational, theoretical, and space astronomy programs in the United States. The University leads or partners in running over 20 unique telescopes across the globe, and researchers at its facilities have discovered more than half of all known near-earth asteroids and comets. It is also the only university in the continental U.S. with its own radio telescope.
Mirrors from the Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab in Steward Observatory have been installed in the world’s most powerful telescopes, including the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT), and the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), slated for completion in 2025.
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