“Thirty Meter Telescope” will study the exoplanets 23/07/2019 – Posted in: Daily News – Tags:

THIRTY METER TELESCOPE

 

For: Mains

Topics covered: About Telescope, Features & Significance, constructing agency

 

News Flash

Hawaii saw protests against plans to start construction of a giant telescope atop Mauna Kea, the US state’s highest mountain at 14,000 feet.

 

Highlights

  • It will study the expolanets, which have been detected in the last few years.
  • It will find whether their atmospheres contain water vapour or methane. The signatures of possible life.
  • TMT will also study the black holes.

 

If the Thirty Metre Telescope cannot be built on Mauna Kea, Spain’s Canary Islands is a backup site.

 

What is the thirty-meter telescope (TMT)?

  • The Thirty Meter Telescope is a new class of extremely large telescopes.
  • It 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.
  • TMT will provide new observational opportunities in essentially every field of astronomy and astrophysics.
  • It will measure wavelengths ranging from the ultraviolet to the mid-infrared.
  • The instrument will help in understanding star and planet formation, 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, and 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.

 

Source: TMT International Observatory

 

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