Extremely Large Telescope in Chile

The soon-to-be world's largest telescope, European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) is to be built on top of a 3000-meter mountain in Chile.

The telescope will have a primary mirror with an unprecedented size of 42 meters in diameter. It is expected to be 15 times more powerful than the current largest optical telescope and will be able to produce images more clearer and more distant objects than what is currently reached by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope.

The construction of this $ 1 billion worth project is planned to begin next year and the observatory is expected to start operating by 2018.