Work has begun on a huge telescope that will allow scientists to find out more about the inner-workings of the universe.

The extremely large telescope (ELT) will have a main mirror 39m in diameter and is being built by the European Southern Observatory, an international collaboration supported by the UK's Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC).

Oxford University sciences are playing a key role in the project and are responsible for the design and construction of its spectograph - an instrument designed to simultaneously take 4,000 images, each in a slightly different colour.

The first stone has now been laid and, to mark the milestone, a ceremony was held earlier this week near the construction site in northern Chile.

When complete the telegraph will enable scientists to form a more detailed picture of the formation and evolution of objects in the universe.

It will support researchers to view everything from the planets in our own solar system and stars in our own and nearby galaxies with unprecedented depth and precision to the formation and evolution of distant galaxies that have never been observed before.

Niranjan Thatte, professor of astrophysics at Oxford University's department of physics said: "The ELT represents a big leap forward in capability, and that means that we will use it to find many interesting things about the Universe that we have no knowledge of today.

"It is the element of ‘exploring the unknown’ that most excites me about the ELT.

"It will be an engineering feat, and its sheer size and light grasp will dwarf all other telescopes that we have built to date."