Dec. 20, 2007 -- While holiday shoppers were hustling around the malls last week, astronomers were stunned to learn of a gift that will go a long way to turning one of their most fervent dreams into reality.

A charitable foundation funded by Intel co-founder Gordan Moore and his wife Betty will donate $200 million to construct what is being billed as the largest optical telescope in the world.

"It's the biggest news to hit astronomy since the Hubble Space Telescope was launched," University of California-Santa Cruz astronomer Sandra Faber told Discovery News.

The Thirty Meter Telescope, or TMT, is a $1-billion project headed by the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and two university consortiums.