Thirty Meter Telescope

The Thirty Meter Telescope will be the largest optical telescope in the northern hemisphere. Its preferred site is Maunakea Hawaiʻi and its adaptive optics will be a state-of-the-art multi-conjugate laser guide star system that will deliver the highest image resolution over the widest field of view to provide unparalleled imaging and spectroscopic capabilities to the US-ELT community. The Thirty Meter Telescope will use a segmented primary mirror, as successfully pioneered on the W. M. Keck Observatory’s twin 10-meter telescopes.

The Thirty Meter Telescope is part of a partnership with NSF’s NOIRLab and the Giant Magellan Telescope that forms the US Extremely Large Telescope Program. Together, the two telescopes will provide more light collecting surface area than any single planned or existing telescope, with the added benefits of independent locations that allow access to the entire sky. Being situated in substantially different time zones on the globe will allow the two telescopes to observe astronomical phenomena for longer spans of time with their powerful and complementary instrument suites.

The TMT International Observatory LLC (TIO) is a non-profit organization established in May 2014 to carry out the design, construction, operation and decommissioning of the Thirty Meter Telescope project. The Members of TIO are the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, the National Institutes of Natural Sciences of Japan, the Department of Science and Technology of India, and the National Research Council (Canada). AURA is a TIO Associate. Major funding has been provided by the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation.

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