The Magellan Clay Telescope, also known as the Large Magellanic Cloud Telescope, is a powerful ground-based optical telescope located in the Chilean Atacama Desert. With a primary mirror diameter of 6.5 meters (21 feet), it is one of the largest telescopes in the world. The telescope is named after Ferdinand Magellan, who was the first to circumnavigate the globe.
The Magellan Clay Telescope has been used to observe some of the most distant and faint objects in the universe. In 2012, it was used to discover an extremely distant galaxy called COSMOS-AzTEC-1, which is more than 13 billion light years away from Earth. In 2014, it was used to study dark matter by observing how its gravity affects galaxies. In 2016, it discovered an exoplanet orbiting a nearby star called Proxima Centauri, which is only 4 light years away from Earth.
The telescope has also been used for more down-to-earth observations, such as tracking asteroids and comets that could potentially impact Earth. It has also been used to study our own solar system, including observations of Pluto and its moon Charon.