"The day is not so far off when the mysteries of the dark ages of the Universe and the physical properties of the first galaxies will be revealed, " Masanori Iye, the leader of the Thirty Meter Telescope project at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, said in a statement.

MSN: Newfound galaxy may be most distant ever seen

The ambition of astronomical project Alma, the largest-ever international radio telescope venture, is no small feat.

BBC: Alma telescope: Ribbon cut on astronomical giant

It'll also be available for the greater astronomical community thanks to NOAO's open-access telescope allocation, which could see it tasked with everything from snapping asteroids closer to home, or helping to better understand the origins of the universe.

ENGADGET: DECam: Gazing deep into the final frontier in search of dark energy

For more than two decades now, the Hubble Space Telescope has served up some of the most spectacular astronomical images ever made.

FORBES: Hubble Astronomers Ready Ambitious 'Deep Field' Encore

At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope, the world's most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory and two survey telescopes.

ENGADGET: 9-gigapixel image of the Milky Way reminds us just how small we truly are

That makes the telescope ideally suited for studying the formation of stars and galaxies, previously shrouded from astronomical view by clouds of impenetrable cosmic debris, and compiling a detailed analysis of their chemistry.

CNN: Telescope set to reveal 'Big Bang'

The work, which is described in the journal Nature, actually draws on observations made by several astronomical facilities, including the Keck and James Clerk Maxwell telescopes in Hawaii and the Hubble Space Telescope in orbit around the Earth.

BBC: NEWS | Science/Nature | Deepest X-rays tell merger story