The Thirty Meter Telescope and Science of the Future

Speaker: Robert Kirshner (TMT International Observatory) In Person and zoom

Zoom Recording Passcode: 88uhrEr@

The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) is a segmented-mirror telescope that will extend the legacy of the audacious 10m Keck telescopes and define the frontier of optical-infrared astronomy for the next 50 years from its unique northern hemisphere vantage point. TMT is in an advanced stage of design with many components, including mirror segments and their support systems being manufactured today. The telescope will have a high-performance multi-conjugate adaptive optics system to approach the diffraction limit of angular resolution set by the physics of light (0.0055 arc seconds at 800nm). The combination of large aperture, diffraction-limited performance, and mature design led the ASTRO2020 Decadal Survey to make extremely large telescopes their top priority.

The TMT is designed for outstanding performance with high throughput, a clean aperture, and a rigid structure. The TMT’s unprecedented imaging capability and sensitivity open a wide range of scientific applications ranging from searching for signs of life on exoplanets, to testing the physics of black holes, to tracing the effects of dark matter and dark energy as spelled out in the 2024 Detailed Science Case (https://www.tmt.org/download/Document/10/original).

The TIO Member institutions include Caltech, Canada, India, Japan and the University of California. TIO presently has Design and Development funding from the US National Science Foundation. NSF participation in constructing TMT would bring access to all US-based scientists (including people at Stanford!) Maunakea is our preferred site. We are committed to listening to and learning from community members, building long-term relationships, and co-creating programs that create a brighter future for everyone.