This, combined with a new digital camera developed for it by Mitsubishi Electric, will make it the most powerful ground-based optical telescope around.

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Thanks to observations made with the Gemini ground-based optical telescope in Hawaii, it quickly became clear that GRB130427A was superbright primarily because it lay only a few billion light years away.

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One of five European Space Agency missions being considered for launch in the early 2020's, Nasa also has a series of exoplanet projects at various stages of development, and both the James Webb Space Telescope and ground based observatories are getting in on the act.

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Ground controllers will be able to monitor the telescope in real time, but the pointing systems are designed to be somewhat autonomous.

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Follow-up observations are also being planned using other ground-based instruments, as well as several space observatories, including the Hubble Space Telescope and the infrared Spitzer Space Telescope.

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