Construction of Giant Telescope in Hawaii Begins Amid Protests
An artist's illustration of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) atop the volcanic peak of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The construction phase of the TMT project officially kicked off on Oct. 7, 2014; the telescope's "first light' should come in 2022.Credit: Thirty Meter Telescope
MT will link up 492 small, hexagonal mirrors to form one giant light-collecting surface 98 feet (30 meters) across. When it's up and running at full strength, the telescope should deliver about 10 times the resolution of NASA's famous Hubble Space Telescope, TMT representatives have said. The scope will employ an advanced "adaptive optics" system to cancel out the blurring effects of Earth's atmosphere.
The building phase of the $1.4 billion Thirty Meter Telescopeofficially kicked off Tuesday (Oct. 7) with a groundbreaking/dedication ceremony near the top of Hawaii's Mauna Kea volcano, though the event was delayed several hours, apparently by people blocking the road up the mountain.
"The groundbreaking and blessing ceremony for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), hindered by a small group of protestors for a brief time, took place and all the partners of the Thirty Meter Telescope International Observatory (TIO) are looking forward to proceeding on the production of TMT as planned," TMT communications director Gordon Squires said in a statement provided to Space.com. [The Biggest Telescopes on Earth: How They Measure Up]
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