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A space telescope so huge it could spot sign of alien life has been given the go ahead. 

The European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) will have a primary mirror 39 meters (43 yards) in diameter, allowing it to gather around 15 times more light than the largest optical telescopes now functioning.

The tip of a mountain high in the Chilean desert was removed in June so site clearance could get under way, with the telescope slated to reach 'first light' in 2024.

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An artist's impression of the European Extremely Large Telescope on Cerro Armazones, a 3,060-metre mountaintop in Chile's Atacama Desert: For comparison, look at the size of the cars

'The decision taken by Council means that the telescope can now be built, and that major industrial construction work for the E-ELT is now funded and can proceed according to plan,' said Tim de Zeeuw, ESO's Director General.

'There is already a lot of progress in Chile on the summit of Armazones and the next few years will be very exciting.'

The telescope will have a dome that covers an area the size of a stadium.

It has a sensitivity to visible and infrared light tens of times greater than any previous telescope, and is designed to help astronomers peer back to the first galaxies 14 billion years ago.

This could unlock secrets of dark matter and dark energy – little-understood forces in space – to help explain how the universe evolved, according to the plans.

However, the telescope that will be the world's largest when completed could face a delay to start-up as its European backers wait for Brazil to commit to the funding needed for it to be fully operational.

But that could now be delayed until 2026, said its operators the European Southern Observatory (ESO) on Thursday.

Full funding of construction is dependent on Brazil becoming the first non-European country to join the ESO, but that has not yet happened. 

The telescope will have a dome that covers an area the size of a stadium.It has a sensitivity to visible and infrared light tens of times greater than any previous telescope, and is designed to help astronomers peer back to the first galaxies 14 billion years ago.

The process is under way but still needs to gain congressional approval in Brazil, where support for it has been patchy.

'It became clear by mid-2014 that the ongoing day-to-day delay was posing an increasing risk to the project and to the scientific aspirations of the ESO community,' said the ESO in a report of a meeting its council held this week.

The organization has responded by dividing the construction into two phases. 

It gave the green-light this week to the first phase, which implies spending of around 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) and does not require Brazil's participation.

That will mean it can begin building, with contracts for the dome, main structure and some instruments due to be awarded next year.

Massive space telescope that could spot alien life to be built

The E-ELT will be a 39-metre aperture optical and infrared telescope sited on Cerro Armazones in the Chilean Atacama Desert (pictured), 20 kilometres from ESO's Very Large Telescope on Cerro Paranal. It will be the world's largest 'eye on the sky'

However, unless additional funds can be identified, the two-step phase means completion could be delayed to 2026, it said.

Should Brazil finish its ratification - and start paying its 130 million-euro accession fee - by early 2017, then the ESO said it should be able to stick to its original plan.

The telescope is one of three vying to be the world's biggest.  

Also in contention are the Giant Magellan Telescope and the Thirty Meter Telescope.

Astronomers hope to use these super-telescopes to look at the first stars and galaxies that formed after the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago.

They also plan to uncover life-threatening asteroids heading towards the planet and spot Earth-like and potentially habitable worlds in orbit around other stars.

THE RACE TO BUILD A BILLION DOLLAR TELESCOPE

The race will see sophisticated observatories built on top of mountains in Hawaii and Chile in an attempt to see the wonders hiding in the outer reaches of the cosmos

Astronomers around the world are going head to head to develop three major telescopes that will be at least 10 times more powerful than anything in operation today.  

Giant Magellan Telescope
Location: Campanas Peak in Chile
Cost: $700 million (£420 million)
Status: To be completed within 10 years
Funding:  U.S, Korea and Australia

The Thirty Meter Telescope
Location: Mauna Kea's peak in Hawaii
Cost: €1bn (£900m)
Status: To be completed around 2022
Funding: Caltech, University of California (UC) and the Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy (ACURA)

The European Extremely Large Telescope
Location: Atacama Desert, Chile
Cost: €1bn (£900m)
Status: Start of operation is planned for early 2020s
Funding: European Southern Observatory

And being the first to complete their projects is crucial. 

The telescopes are expected to open windows into scientific mysteries that have stumped scientists for centuries.

The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), for instance, is currently under construction atop Las Campanas Peak in Chile at an altitude of 8,366 ft (2,550 metres) above sea level.

The GMT is a $700 million (£420 million) project being funded by the U.S, Korea and Australia and expected to be operation in around 10 years.

It will be made up of seven 27.6 ft (8.4 metre) diameter segments, and is expected to have over 5-10 times the light-gathering ability of existing instruments.

The design for E-ELT followed plans for something known as the Overwhelmingly Large Telescope (Owl) which was hoped to have an aperture of 100 metres, the same distance that Usain Bolt ran in 9.58 seconds.

An artist's impression of the European and Extremely Large Telescope shows the Milky Way gleaming behind the telescope

However, Owl had to be scrapped because of its overwhelmingly expensive budget, but Eso said it may still be built sometime in the future.

The final contender is the €1bn (£900m) Thirty Meter Telescope which had plans for its 2022 operation approved last year.

It is being constructed on Mauna Kea's peak in Hawaii which already hosts about a dozen telescopes. 

The Thirty Meter Telescope and what it means for science

The $1bn (£900m) Thirty Meter Telescope had plans for its 2022 operation approved last year

The dormant volcano is popular with astronomers because its summit is well above the clouds at 13,796 feet, offering a clear view of the sky above for 300 days a year. 

The telescope's segmented primary mirror, which is nearly 100 feet (30 metres) long, will give it nine times the collecting area of the largest optical telescopes in use today. Its images will also be three times sharper. 

It should help scientists see some 13 billion light years away for a glimpse into the early years of the universe. 

All three telescopes' websites leave the exact projected date of their completion unknown, expressing the stating will be completed and conducting actual science by 2022.