Eric Schmidt announces ambitious 4-telescope observatory system
Eric Schmidt (yep, the former Google CEO) and his wife Wendy are making one of the biggest private bets on astronomy ever.
They're funding a new space telescope called Lazuli—plus three ground-based observatories—to help scientists explore the universe in ways we've never seen before.
What's actually being built?
The project includes Lazuli, a space telescope even larger than Hubble with 70% more light-gathering power, designed for spotting exoplanets and catching fast cosmic events.
On the ground, the Argus Array will use more than 1,000 small telescopes to keep an eye on the northern sky nonstop.
Open science for everyone
Unlike many big projects, all four observatories will share their data openly—so scientists everywhere can dig in.
The Deep Synoptic Array will hunt down mysterious fast radio bursts, and LFAST will help study super-faint objects in space.
When's it happening?
Everything is set to be up and running by 2029.
With Lazuli alone costing hundreds of millions of dollars, this could seriously change how we look at our universe—and who gets to join in.