Can't believe they forgot Hubble.
Try this for a visual comparoo (or see attached):
http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...rrors.svg_.png
And check out this DeepSkyVideos report for some good info on the project (as well as on OWL
) and a tour of the site (which looks like the surface of Mars):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=450jt8LlcnY
It's going to cost €1b in round figures. By contrast the James Webb space telescope that's going to be smaller than the EELT secondary is costing ~10x that. Ground based astronomy really delivers when it comes to aperture per dollar. And €1b for a world class instrument that's likely to serve science for the next half a century is petty cash really.