South Korea took part in a ground breaking ceremony for the world's largest optical telescope in the Andes Mountains of Chile.
 
The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute said the ceremony for the project took place Thursday at the Las Campanas Observatory.
 
The event was attended by Chilean President Michelle Bachelet and officials from South Korea, the United States, Australia and Brazil. 
 
The reflecting surface of the Giant Magellan Telescope will be made up of seven mirrors with a diameter of eight-point-four meters.
 
The GMT's 25 meter wide primary mirror system will possess over six times the light gathering power of the existing largest optical telescope.
 
It will also be capable of providing imagery up to ten times sharper than that of the Hubble Space Telescope. 
 
The telescope will be completed by 2020 and be used in observational research starting in 2024.
 
The GMT will observe the farthest stretches of the universe to date and be used to research the birth of the universe.