![]() The TMT project is an international collaboration between Caltech, the University of California, the Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Department of Science and Technology of India.įollow Tanya Lewis on Twitter and Google+. Construction is nominally set to begin in April, though Bolte said it would more likely happen this summer. Nevertheless, the project received a building permit in 2011, and initial preparation of the Mauna Kea site began in August 2013. high-precision Doppler measurements, high-precision space-based photometry, and advanced adaptive optics have driven a large number of exoplanet discoveries. Opponents have kept progress stalled by blocking the only access road to the site. The Thirty Meter Telescope will provide an enormous advance in our ability to identify and characterize extrasolar planets. Funding for the project is still 17 percent short, however, Bolte said. Since 2014, protests have flared in response to the attempted construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope. Refurbishing costs tack on another $12 million. The project has spent $120 million on the design of the observatory, and the operations cost will by $27 million per year, Bolte said. The Wide Field Optical Spectrometer (WFOS) will enable imaging and spectroscopy in visible and near-ultraviolet light. ![]() The Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (IRIS) and The Infrared Multi-object Spectrometer (IRMS) will be able to study the chemical composition, or spectra, of astronomical objects in near-infrared light, and will be capable of "diffraction limited" imaging, which has a resolution as good as the instrument's theoretical limit. But the TMT will have technology known as adaptive optics to "de-blur" the images it captures with its giant mirror.ĭesign is underway for a suite of sophisticated instruments. Like all ground-based telescopes, the TMT will be subject to atmospheric turbulence, which is the reason why stars appear to twinkle. The new observatory will enable exciting new studies of the first epoch of star formation, the assembly and evolution of galaxies, the discovery and characterization of exoplanets, and other areas.
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