Vote Now! Best Space Stories of the Week - June 17, 2012

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World's Largest Telescope Project Gets Green Light

ESO

A European project to build the largest optical telescope on Earth took a big step closer to becoming reality Monday (June 11), when final approval came from the scientific consortium backing the new observatory.

Plans for the mega-telescope, appropriately called the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), were approved by the governing council of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), officials announced Monday. [Full Story]

NEXT: Mars Rover Contamination Concern

Mars Rover Contamination Concern

NASA/JPL-Caltech

An unexpected contamination problem has cropped up for NASA's next Mars rover, but scientists are confident the huge robot will still be able to complete its mission after it lands on the Red Planet in August.

NASA scientists discussed the contamination concern and a new Mars landing plan for the car-size Curiosity rover in a teleconference with reporters today (June 11). The contamination issue, they said, concerns the rover's drill. [Full Story]

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Space.com Staff
Space.com Staff
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Space.com is the premier source of space exploration, innovation and astronomy news, chronicling (and celebrating) humanity's ongoing expansion across the final frontier. Originally founded in 1999, Space.com is, and always has been, the passion of writers and editors who are space fans and also trained journalists. Our current news team consists of Editor-in-Chief Tariq Malik; Editor Hanneke Weitering, Senior Space Writer Mike Wall; Senior Writer Meghan Bartels; Senior Writer Chelsea Gohd, Senior Writer Tereza Pultarova and Staff Writer Alexander Cox, focusing on e-commerce. Senior Producer Steve Spaleta oversees our space videos, with Diana Whitcroft as our Social Media Editor.