On June 19 the top of the Cerro Armanzones Mountain, which stood at 9842 feet high in the Chilean Andes, lost about 130 feet off the top as a foundation was made for an extremely large telescope.
Although the mountain probably lost around a million tons of rock, it occurred so that the process of creating a level surface for The European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) could begin. This telescope will have a 39-metre main mirror according to The European Extremely Large Telescope website, and its size will provide opportunities for discovery in outer space that were previously impossible.
With this large mirror, it will possible to capture more light from outer space and the images captured by the Extremely Large Telescope will be at least 16 times sharper than those taken by the Hubble Space Telescope as recorded by National Geographic.
Deputy Project Scientist for the European Extremely Large Telescope Dr. Aprajita Verma described the potential of the project to National Geographic saying, “From probing the first galaxies that formed in the Universe, to studying extra-solar planets and looking for signs of life, we can expect break through advances and new discoveries with the E-ELT.”
Check out this video about the telescope: