Former Google CEO plans to singlehandedly fund a Hubble telescope replacement
Ars Technica••general
Key Points:
- Eric and Wendy Schmidt announced a major philanthropic investment to fund four innovative telescopes, collectively called the Schmidt Observatory System, marking a shift back toward private funding in astronomy after decades of government dominance.
- The centerpiece is Lazuli, a 3.1-meter space-based optical telescope planned for launch around 2028-2029, designed to surpass the Hubble Telescope with a higher orbit and advanced instruments including a coronagraph for exoplanet study.
- The other three telescopes are ground-based arrays located in the US: Argus Array (1,200 small telescopes for wide-field imaging), DSA radio telescope (1,600 radio dishes in Nevada for mapping radio sources), and LFAST (modular spectroscopy system in Arizona for bios
