Thirty Meter Telescope

Thirty Meter Telescope

Part of: GS Prelims and GS-III – Science and technology; Space

In news

• 2020 Physics Nobel Laureate Prof. Andrea Ghez had worked closely with Indian astronomers on the design of back-end instruments and possible science prospects of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project being installed at Maunakea in Hawaii.

Key takeaways 

• TMT project is an international partnership between CalTech, Universities of California, Canada, Japan, China, and India. 
• “Thirty Metre” refers to the 30-metre diameter of the mirror, with 492 segments of glass pieced together.
• Once completed, it would be three times as wide as the world’s largest existing visible-light telescope. 
• The larger the mirror, the more light a telescope can collect, which means, in turn, that it can “see” farther, fainter objects.
• It would be more than 200 times more sensitive than current telescopes. 
• It would be able to resolve objects 12 times better than the Hubble Space Telescope.
• Application: The study of exoplanets

Do you know? 

• Already the site of a number of observatories and 13 large telescopes, Mauna Kea is considered sacred by native Hawaiians who believe that such constructions defile the Mauna Kea Mountain.
• If the Thirty Metre Telescope cannot be built on Mauna Kea Mountain in Hawaii, Spain’s Canary Islands is a backup site.