Question: what is the most powerful telescope?

Adam Tuff answered on 15 Mar 2011:

That’s a good question! Generally, the bigger your telescope, the more powerful it is. The most powerful space-based optical telescope (i.e. one that looks at visable light) is Hubble, but there are many on the ground, such as the Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona that are ten times more powerful – in fact this is the most powerful telescope we have so far There are however many different forms of radiation we can look at – we can look at high energy radiation like X-Rays and gamma-rays, or long wavelengths like radio and microwave radiation. Gamma ray telescopes need to be in space as our atmosphere blocks this radiation – I think the FERMI telescope is the most powerful for this type of radiation. The most powerful radio telescope is the Arecibo telescope (which is huge – hundreds of metres wide…if you’ve seen the James Bond film goldeneye, it’s at the end of that!), and is was built in Peurto Rico.

There are lots of telescopes being designed at the moment – so these record holders won’t be reconrd holders for long!