A state judge in Hawaii has rescinded a permit that would have allowed the construction of as many as six more telescopes atop Mauna Kea, the mountain that is already home to a colony of observatories. According to a report by the Environment News Service, the judge said that the mountaintop lacked a a “comprehensive management plan” that is a requirement for such a fragile ecosystem. The judge’s ruling blocked NASA’s plan for a new $50-million telescope project on Mauna Kea.

Opposition to further expansion of the observatories has come from both environmentalists and native Hawaiians, who say astronomers are defiling a sacred mountain. The controversy has prompted fears that the United States may relinquish its leading role in astronomical exploration, as scientists move to the next generation of telescopes, in Chile (The Chronicle, October 29, 2004).