The erection of a huge new telescope has started taking pace in the Chilean Andes. The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) has now entered the hard-rock excavation phase, which will make way for its foundations. The newly initiated digging work will go about 23 feet deep into the rock at Las Campanas. GMT is named after Ferdinand Magellan, the Portuguese sailor whose expeditions expanded European understanding of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.