PHOENIX, Arizona — On Wednesday (Jan. 7), scientists made a major announcement at the 247th meeting of the American Astronomical Society: Four next-gen telescopes have secured private funding, and they should roll out at a very rapid pace. Three are ground-based scope arrays and one is a space observatory named Lazuli that would have 70% more collecting area than the Hubble Space Telescope. If all goes to plan, Lazuli could launch as soon as 2029.
"We're going to do it in three years, and we're going to do it for a ridiculously low price," Pete Klupar, executive director of the Lazuli project, said during the conference.
