A large telescope that will scan the entire visible sky every three nights is to be built on a mountain in Chile.
The 8.4m (28ft) Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will be 50 times as powerful as other survey telescopes.
The observatory will be able to produce colour movies of objects that change or move on rapid timescales.
It will join the existing Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, on Cerro Pachon, an 2,640m (8,800ft) mountain peak in northern Chile.
The LSST should be under construction by 2009 with a planned completion date in 2012.
