1 00:00:08,400 --> 00:00:11,900 Secondary Mirror of ELT Successfully Cast 2 00:00:13,200 --> 00:00:19,800 Big news: the secondary mirror blank for the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) has just been cast. 3 00:00:22,500 --> 00:00:29,000 In a nail-biting process, the still glowing hot mirror blank was lifted carefully onto a truck at the SCHOTT melting facility... 4 00:00:32,300 --> 00:00:37,800 ...transported at walking-pace through Mainz, Germany, with a police and fire escort... 5 00:00:41,300 --> 00:00:47,160 ...and arrived safely at the SCHOTT annealing facility. 6 00:00:49,500 --> 00:00:55,300 At 3.5 tonnes and 4.2 metres across, the ELT M2 will be the biggest secondary mirror in existence… 7 00:00:55,300 --> 00:01:03,000 ...and also the largest convex mirror ever produced. 8 00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:14,900 This is a major step towards building the world’s biggest eye on the sky. 9 00:01:31,300 --> 00:01:35,780 The mirror blank will very slowly cool and then be shipped to France 10 00:01:38,780 --> 00:01:42,460 for grinding and polishing to exactly the right shape. 11 00:01:52,700 --> 00:01:57,000 Transcribed by ESO; Translated by —