This Is What the Most Powerful Ground Telescope on Earth Will Look Like

There has arguably never been a project in astronomical history as aptly named as the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), imagined in all its behemoth glory in this newly released concept animation.

The telescope, currently in construction atop the summit of Cerro Armazones in Chile's Atacama Desert, will indeed be extremely large. In fact, when it is completed circa 2024, the E-ELT will be the largest optical telescope on the planet, with a primary mirror measuring 39.3 meters (129 feet) across and a protective dome 80 meters (262 feet) high.

For context, the largest optical telescopes on Earth today have primary mirrors in the neighborhood of 10 meters in diameter, a quarter of what the E-ELT will boast. With these unrivaled dimensions, the telescope will be able to collect more light than all currently operational 10-meter-class telescopes combined, and can resolve images that are 16 times sharper than those produced by the Hubble Space Telescope. In short, this telescope will be the most powerful eye on the optical sky in the history of ground-based astronomy.

"The bigger the telescope, the sharper are the images you can make," E-ELT astronomer Jochen Liske told me in December 2014, when the telescope had just secured its first phase of funding. "The E-ELT is by far the largest. It will have an edge over all the competing projects."

The E-ELT is the brainchild of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), a supergroup consisting of 16 partner nations interested in exploring the skies of the southern hemisphere, which are relatively unwatched in contrast to the turf north of the equator. Just last week, ESO signed the biggest contract in astronomical history to fund the construction of the telescope's dome and structural frame, with a price tag of about 455 million dollars. This development puts the project one step closer to its goal of achieving first light in 2024.

For a more in-depth look at the E-ELT's design specs, here's a six-minute ESO featurette on the telescope's hardware and capabilities which, it must be said, are every bit as epic as you'd expect from this astronomical heavyweight in the works.