A joint effort between the U.S., China, India, Japan, and Canada broke ground on October 7 to construct the world’s biggest telescope. Dubbed the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), this international cooperation is projected to cost around $1.4 billion and will sit near the summit of Hawaii’s Mauna Kea volcano.

“This is an exciting moment as we begin construction of TMT. Its giant mirror, nearly 100 feet across, promises the highest definition views of planets orbiting nearby stars and the first stars and galaxies in the distant universe,” said Edward Stone, TMT International Observatory’s executive director, at the groundbreaking.

A telescope with greater light condensing abilities, like the TMT, can search for stars that are farther away from Earth or just not as bright as other stars around them. It is hoped the TMT could also identify planets in different star systems that may be able to support life.

Astronomers estimate that they will even be able observe stars born between 200 and 400 million years after the Big Bang. That would be 400 – 600 million years older than the oldest star ever observed.

With a height of almost 13,800 feet and low levels of both light and air pollution, Mauna Kea has some of the best conditions on the planet for astronomical observation. Its only competition in this aspect is the Atacama Desert in Chile. As a result the TMT will be joining a handful of other highly advanced telescopes on the summit, including the Keck I, Keck II, and Japan’s Subaru telescope.

Currently the TMT partnership has been entered into by the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, Japan’s Institute of Natural Sciences, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Meanwhile, India’s Union Cabinet has approved its country’s participation to begin this fall, and Canada’s role will officially start in Spring 2015.

The project is scheduled for completion by March 2022.