Italy is proposing to build one of the world's most modern telescopes in an unused mineral mine. Officials hope that the uncommon stillness of the place in Sardinia will win European Union approval and financing. The Sos Enathos lead and zinc mine extends 300 meters underground. The Italian government chose the mine as its candidate place for the Einstein Telescope (ET).

The EU-financed project aims to explore space by observing gravitational waves. Gravitational waves are the ripples in space and time that physicist Albert Einstein predicted in his general theory of relativity. Collisions of super massive things like black holes are believed to cause the waves. Researchers expect the telescope to capture the waves.