Image: University of Tokyo

The University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory (TAO) officially opened on Tuesday after 26 years of planning and construction. Sitting 18,500 feet high on Mount Chajnantor in the Atacama Desert in Chile, the 6.5-meter optical-infrared TAO telescope is now the highest in the world.

TAO replaces a smaller version of itself called MiniTAO, which held the highest telescope distinction before it. It beats the Chacaltaya Observatory, owned by the University of Madrid and sitting 17,191 feet on Mount Chacaltaya in Bolivia.

The next three record holders in the top five are also in Chile’s Atacama desert: the James Ax Observatory (17,100 feet); the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (17,030 feet); and the Llano de Chajnantor Observatory (sources vary;…

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