Those of you who are on Facebook and ‘Like’ the Heather’s Homilies Facebook page will know I post the regular updates or ESO Casts from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) there, usually after Amy Carparelli has reminded me they’re available by posting them on Twitter.

Their latest episode is about a new reflecting telescope they’ve just contracted to be built near the current one. The new one will be known as the E-ELT, or European Extremely Large Telescope. It will be the biggest telescope ever in the world and enable even sharper images at a greater distance to be observed than ever before.

This telescope will enable more work to be done on studying planets surrounding distant stars and the conditions on them, the collapse of black holes, more about the origins and future of the universe, and much more.