The University of Hawaii’s Board of Regents voted unanimously today to build the world’s largest optical telescope atop Mauna Kea, defying protests from Native Hawaiians who consider the mountaintop sacred and from environmentalists who said it would endanger the ecosystem. The billion-dollar project to build the Thirty Meter Telescope, an international partnership led by the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and a consortium of Canadian research universities, will help return Hawaii to the leading edge in telescope-based astronomy, which in recent years has moved to Chile. The 13,800-foot-high Mauna Kea offers ideal conditions for astronomical observation, with more than 300 cloudless days a year and little light pollution. The telescope, which could be completed by 2018, will give scientists a view of extrasolar planets and a glimpse back in time 13 billion light-years, to the universe’s early years, the Associated Press reported.
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3 Responses to U. of Hawaii Regents Endorse Plan to Build Giant Telescope Atop Mountain
rickinchina09 - June 29, 2010 at 1:16 am
The Regents star gaze. Meanwhile back at the ranch full-time positions are replaced by part-time positions, tenure track positions by adjunct positions, and retirees by no one. Of course, we can always hope the state legislature will come to our rescue. It should occur about the same time we find alien life.
allens - June 29, 2010 at 6:42 am
Would you prefer the money going to athletics?
cu_alum - June 30, 2010 at 2:19 pm
“The telescope . . . will give scientists a view . . . back in time 13 billion light-years[.]“The light-year is a unit of distance, not of time. The telescope will let scientists view objects 13 billion light-years away, thereby letting them see 13 billion years back. (This is true because light from those objects reaching the earth today left them 13 billion years ago, revealing what they looked like then rather than what they look like now.)A light-year is approximately 6 trillion miles. 13 billion light years is approximately 78 sextillion miles. The article thus claims that the new scope will let scientists look 78 sextillion miles back in time, which is a nonsequitur.