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A Mountain Top Just Got Leveled To Make Way For A Giant Telescope

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Artist's rendering of the future telescope which will be the 'largest eye on the sky.' ESO/L. Calçada

On June 19, the top of Cerro Armazones, a 10,000-foot mountain in northern Chile's Atacama Desert, was blown up to make way for the European Extremely Large Telescope, or E-ELT. While the prospect of an explosion elicited quite a buzz from twitter, the event proved anticlimactic, resulting in a measly puff of smoke.  

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Video of the event is available below. You can also watch a video of preparations for the blast.

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The big bang. European Southern Observatory

Still the E-ELT sounds pretty cool. 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 Southern Observatory (ESO). In a statement, officials called it the "world's biggest eye on the sky."

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The location of Cerro Armazones, where the European Extremely Large Telescope will be built. Google Maps

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.

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Watch the ground breaking below:

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