Brushing shoulders with extra terrestrials could soon be more than just a sci-fi flick’s script! Now, the world’s biggest telescope, costing a whopping 1 billion pounds, will begin its search for life forms in the outer space. Called the European Extremely Large Telescope or the E-ELT, this one will be the biggest instrument of its kind ever built and project authorities have approved designs for the same by Oxford and Durham University researchers. The telescope will be capable of taking pictures of previously unseen stars and planets in distant galaxies. With a 40m wide mirror made up of 1,000 separate segments measuring almost half the length of a football pitch, this telescope will gather 15 times more light than the largest facilities available today! And hopefully, researchers find yet another plant-earth-type planet out there, given that ours is slowly turning into a waste-land, and humankind will probably need better accommodation in future.

[Phenomenica]