A film by Andreas Neuhaus Researchers at the European Southern Observatory headquarters in Garching are working on developing innovative new telescopes. One of them is the E-ELT, or the "European Extremely Large Telescope."This model shows what could one day be the world’s biggest telescope. Its main mirror will measure 42 meters in diameter. It's been designed for the European Southern Observatory. The Extremely Large Telescope - or E.L.T as this kind of telescope is called - will give astronomers an unprecedented look at space.   Matthias Steinmetz of the Astrophysical Institute Potsdam explains: "The larger it is, the more light it collects and the deeper it can see into the universe." Flexible like gum The ground-based telescope will detect the visible and infra-red light that's penetrated the atmosphere. To correct the distortions of the incoming light, Markus Kissler-Patig and his team are applying a sophisticated technique known as Adaptive Optics. He developed it at the European Southern Observatory. “By the time they reach the telescope, the smooth images coming from space have been distorted by the earth's atmosphere,“ says Markus Kissler-Patig. “So we need to correct these distorted pictures . What we do is build a mirror into the telescope - not a smooth one, but one that we can deform. We deform it a hundred times a second - after calculating exactly how the deformations have to look to smooth out the distorted images. It passes on the smoothed-out images to the instruments. It can turn a blob into a high-definition image." Making the mirror is a huge challenge. So far it's possible to make single mirrors with a diameter of eight meters. But 42 meters? Impossible. So the Extremely Large Telescope's main mirror will be made up of 984 smaller ones fitted together. Each part can be adjusted separately. The makers also have to secure the telescope against earthquakes, storms and other extreme conditions. Stormy locati...