Australia is teaming up with several other countries to design and develop a $2 billion telescope which is aimed at looking back at the universe and study it in detail.

2011 Physics Nobel Prize Laureate Brian P. Schmidt of the Australian National University, said the development of the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) telescope will have the capability to see some distant new planets, and even detect very weak extraterrestrial signals.

Schmidt added that SKA can also give astronomers insight into the formation and evolution of the first stars and galaxies.

Slated to begin in 2016, the telescope's first science will take place in 2019 with full operation in 2024. On November 23, 2011 seven countries and research institutions announced the formation of the SKA organization including Australia, China, Italy, The Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, and the UK.

Although the telescope's location has not been determined yet, Schmidt said that there is a possibility that it will be built in Australia.

"I believe the committee studying this issue has presented its report. I think the Australian proposal is very strong. Australia is gung-ho about this project and I believe we have a compelling case," he said.

Schmidt won the prestigious award "for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae," noted that the SKA can have a similar role that the Parkes Telescope in Australia played in the first manned lunar landing.

Brian won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics along with Saul Perlmutter and Adam G. Riess.