Published: 13th Nov, 2020
Indian astronomers had worked closely with Nobel Laureate Andrea Ghez on the design of back-end instruments and possible
Context
- Indian astronomers had worked closely with Nobel Laureate Andrea Ghez on the design of back-end instruments and possible science prospects of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project being installed at Mauna Kea in Hawaii.
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What is TMT?
- The saga of the TMT began in 2003, when a nonprofit partnership formed between two universities in California and counterparts in Japan, China, India and Canada.
- The Thirty Meter Telescope is a new class of extremely large telescopes that will allow to see deeper into space and observe cosmic objects with unprecedented sensitivity.
- With its 30 m prime mirror diameter, TMT will be three times as wide, with nine times more area, than the largest currently existing visible-light telescope in the world.
- This will provide unparalleled resolution with TMT images more than 12 times sharper than those from the Hubble Space Telescope.
- When operational, TMT will provide new observational opportunities in essentially every field of astronomy and astrophysics.
- Observing in wavelengths ranging from the ultraviolet to the mid-infrared, this unique instrument will allow astronomers to address fundamental questions in astronomy ranging from understanding star and planet formation to unraveling the history of galaxies and the development of large-scale structure in the universe.
Who is building TMT?
- The Thirty Meter Telescope is being designed and developed by the TMT International Observatory LLC (TIO).
- The TIO is a non-profit international partnership between:
- the California Institute of Technology
- the University of California
- the National Institutes of Natural Sciences of Japan
- the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
- the Department of Science and Technology of India
- the National Research Council (Canada)
- The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) is a TIO Associate and major funding for TMT has been provided by the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation.
- The TIO will also run the TMT operations once the telescope is completed.
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