WATCH LIVE: A Mountain Top Is About To Get Blown Off To Make Way For A Giant Telescope
ESO/L. Calçada
Artist's rendering of the future telescope which will be the 'largest eye on the sky.'
On Thursday at 12:30 p.m. ET, the top of Cerro Armazones, a 10,000-foot mountain in northern Chile's Atacama Desert, will be blown off to make way for the European Extremely Large Telescope, or E-ELT.
The event will be streamed live (embed below). You can also watch a video of preparations for the big blast.
The telescope's main mirror will measure almost 130 feet, making it the biggest optical/near-infrared telescope in the world, according to the European Space Agency (ESO). In a statement, officials called it the "world's biggest eye on the sky."
Google Maps
The location of Cerro Armazones, where the European Extremely Large Telescope will be built.
The mission of the telescope will be to "tackle some of the biggest scientific challenges of our time," ESO said. It will do this by "allowing detailed studies of subjects including planets around other stars, the first objects in the Universe, super-massive black holes, and the nature and distribution of the dark matter and dark energy which dominate the Universe."
The first use of the telescope is set to take place in the early 2020s.
Watch live below:
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