The largest telescope ever is being created in Chile, and its deadline is slated for 2020, roughly the time man should be on Mars. At 80 feet in diameter, it will be extremely powerful, and have one of the best locations on Earth, for a nice one-two punch of science. The GMT (Giant Magellan Telescope) will be located on a remote mountain top in the Andes, allowing for a minimal of light pollution. Deploying a special system of segmented mirrors, the GMT will be ten times more powerful than the Hubble telescope.
One of the reasons listed for the construction is just as exciting as the project itself: to help find life. Scientists seem very confident of finding life, and spending a very large amount of money on the telescope (700 million USD) shows utmost certainty and confidence in what they believe they will find. If they don't find that, than it will end up as one of the best tools we have to view space, and learn more about what is truly all around this.
Personally, I am very excited about this project. Taking a giant pair of binoculars, I am able to see all the craters on the moon, and stars in the sky that are blank to the naked eye. Now imagining this, and what it will see (think Hubble deep field and beyond) is a truly amazing and shocking thought. Hubble has an advantage, in that it has had years to go deep into space, but after a bit of usage the GMT will reveal what the Hubble cannot, and will not.
What are your thoughts? At 700 million dollars, not everyone is sure to agree, or maybe they would've liked to have seen something else funded.
Official site: http://www.gmto.org/index.html
I think this sounds incredible. Hubble alone has provided outstanding images, and would now more or less be considered quite dated. I can't wait until images of its first tests are released. I would like to see it also expand on the already known deep field views and see what is beyond the current furthest and most examined sectors.
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