On June 19, 2014, at approximately 1:40pm, an explosion shook a mountain in the Atacam Desert of Chile. The blast was not a sign of war or fighting of any sort, but rather a celebratory sound. Construction was underway for the world’s largest telescope, the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). The European Southern Observatory (ESO), who have a long history of scientific discovery, is sponsoring this project which was  first put into motion over ten years ago.

The top of the mountain, Cerro Armazones, will have 59 feet chopped off, creating a smooth, flat surface for the whopping 2,700 ton telescope building and construction tools. After it is built, the humongous telescope will be able to seize 100 million times more light than the human eye and about 15 times more than existing strong optical telescopes. The 798-segment mirror will be 128 feet in diameter and will be cloaked in a dome.

ESO anticipates making their first observations through the lens in the early 2020s. No one is more excited than E-ELT scientist, Joe Liske, who’s been working on the project since 2006. On Thursday, the day of the blast, he told Live Science that he is “…extremely pleased that we’re really moving some dirt now.”  The device will allow scientists to glean information about the formation of the first galaxies, the expansion of the universe, and the anomalies that are dark matter and dark energy, as well as analyze alien planets that welcome new life.

The dusty Cerro Armazones is located only 12 miles from another ESO location, the Paranal Observatory. which houses a group of telescopes, including the Very Large Telescope. Among ESO’s history of making spectacular finds, is their assistance in the Nobel-prize winning discovery that as the universe is expanding, it’s also speeding up. Once E-ELT is complete, it is sure to add to ESO’s list of stellar scientific accomplishments.