The European Southern Observatory has approved the construction of European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), whose 128-foot (39-m) primary mirror could be feasting on starlight about a decade from now.
Long, long ago, when backyard stargazers dreamed of owning a 6-inch reflector, I vividly remember making pilgrimages to Palomar Mountain in California to see the world's largest telescope. In the visitor's center was a massive concrete slab, bigger around than our family room, to represent the 200-inch (5-m) primary mirror of the famous Hale Telescope.

As announced by ESO on June 11th, six of ESO's 14 member states have approved the project outright and four others have given provisional approval. The remaining four are expected to join the majority soon.
As enormous as the E-ELT will be, it's been scaled down from the original proposal, which called for a 42-m primary, to save money. An even larger Overwhelmingly Large Telescope, with a 100-m primary, never gained much traction with ESO's cost-conscious council. Even so, officials have budgeted nearly $1.4 billion for the decade-long E-ELT project. Operations could begin as early as 2022.

And what might one do with a telescope this big? ESO astronomers hope exploit its visible-light and infrared prowess to find and scrutinize Earth-like planets in the "habitable zones" of other stars, measure characteristics of the first stars and galaxies to form after the Big Bang, and to probe the nature of dark matter and dark energy.
You can get more background at the E-ELT website or dig a little deeper by downloading this 24-page executive summary of a much longer project blueprint.
Wow. Can you imagine the competition for time on this baby? I’m sure the pros are lining up already. Solution: build another one in the northern hemisphere. I applaud the Chileans and the Europeans for this truly colossal undertaking. In spite of their economic problems, EU nations are still finding a way to make this happen. All right!
The "Overwhelmingly Large Telescope"?? Really? I’m waiting for one to be named the GHBT — Great Honking Big Telecope 🙂