The Associated Press

COLUMBUS - A group of Ohio State University scientists will be spending the next year helping put together the world's largest telescope.

They will be testing critical components of the device in a hangar at Rickenbacker Airport, the Columbus Dispatch reported Sunday. Once the tests are complete, the parts will be sent to the Mount Graham observatory in Arizona.

Plans are for the 600-ton, $120 million telescope to be fully operational in 2006.

With twin 27.5-foot mirrors on a single mount, it's expected to have twice the light-gathering power of its nearest competitor.

The telescope should afford astronomers unique views of celestial objects such as black holes and quasars and is anticipated to return the first images of Jupiter-size planets orbiting distant stars.

The parts being tested in Ohio arrived in August after being built in Italy.

They include the 44-ton cells that house the telescope's mirrors and a 22-ton matching lid, or bell jar.

Ohio State's work is crucial to the telescope's success because the cell and bell jar join to form an airtight container for the device's mirrors when they get their final coat of vaporized aluminum.