Astronomy has come a long way since 1995. Since then, we've discvered two more planets - Sedna (discovered in 2004), which is slightly smaller than Pluto, and Xena (discovered in 2005), slightly larger than Pluto - and have detected planets revolving around another star like our sun. Before that, we only knew of planets that revolved around our own sun. Discover Magazine asks So why isn't anyone excited?. Perhaps because no one's ever seen those planets, it answers.

That may change if the Giant Magellan Telescope is ever built. Slated for completion in 2016, this super-telescope will have up to 10 times the resolving power of the Hubble Space Telescope with its seven 27.6 foot mirror segments. The team has raised $17 million for the mammoth project that is estimated to cost about $500 million but that's not holding the project back.

For the next several years, the fate of the Giant Magellan Telescope will rise or fall on the efforts of Roger Angel. If his team fails to deliver seven enormous mirrors to the accuracy needed, the entire project will collapse.

On the bright side, if it's ever built, this telescope will hold the key to the future of astronomy.

Whoever builds the next giant telescope will own the cutting edge of astronomy for years, perhaps decades. Those astronomers - and only those - will have first crack at the very biggest questions out there. The next great telescope will help discover what 96 percent of the universe is made of, unraveling the mysteries of so-called dark matter and dark energy. For now, we know of life on just one planet around just one of the 1022 stars in the known cosmos. The Giant Magellan Telescope may be able to detect Earth-size planets around a nearby star and may even be able to identify the traces of living chemistry in exoplanet atmospheres. How our universe evolved from its simple beginnings, what it contains, what its ultimate fate may be - these are the fundamental human questions the new telescope is designed to address.