Hawaii sited as home to largest optical telescope TMT

hawaii’s mauna kea volcano in honolulu is sited as home for the ‘thirty meter telescope‘ (TMT). the large-scale project is lead by a team of engineers, scientists and project specialists in pasadena, california who have been working together to develop the world’s most advanced and most powerful optical telescope,

the inner workings of the TMT

serving as a tool for investigating a range of topics related to our solar system including: stereoscopic exploration of the dark ages; galaxies and large-scale structures in the young universe offering detailed spectroscopic analysis of galaxies and subgalactic fragments during the epoch of galaxy assembly; investigating the massive black holes throughout cosmic time; and looking at planet-formation processes and the characterization of extra-solar planets.

artit’s concept showing the segmented primary mirror, which has 492 hexagonal segments arranged into a f/1 hyperboloidal mirror

the TMT is a wide-field, alt-az ritchey-chretien telescope with a 492 segment (composed of 492 aspheric, hexagonal-shaped, polished and coated mirror components mounted on passive / active segment support systems), a primary mirror with a diametric measurement of 30-meters, a fully active secondary mirror and articulated tertiary mirror.

TMT at dusk

the structure’s 30-meter aperture allows it to render a focus that is sharper than smaller telescopes accomplished through the diffraction of light (also, collecting more light than smaller ones), thus allowing images of fainter objects to appear more pronounced. in addition, TMT reaches a further range than previous designs by a factor of 10 to 100 depending on the observation.

the framework of TMT will be comprised of an optical beam that will feed a constellation of adaptive optics (AO) systems and science instruments that are mounted onto nasmyth platforms – arranged around the telescope’s azimuth structure – that will be large enough to support at least eight different AP/instrument combinations (dependent on the exact volume and mass parameters), covering a generous spatial and spectral resolution.

artist’s illustration of the telescope showing the tertiary mirror in the center of the segmented primary mirror

support facilities within the TMT’s observatory design will maintain and bear these technical systems. the implementation of the adaptive optics system permits a diffraction-limited performance which in essence offers the best that the system’s optics can provide in theory. in return this provides high-sensitivity spatial resolution that is 12 times sharper than what the hubble space telescope achieves.

artist concept illustration of the TMT observatory at its proposed mauna kea site in hawaii

the TMT will be housed within a  60-meter diameter ‘calotte’ style dome offers a full range of motion while providing maximum wind protection by virtue of the minimum opening size.

98 vent doors can be opened to provide natural ventilation. construction begins this year, with the TMT enclosure and structure set for completion in 2020.