A battle is poised to unfold on a Hawaii mountain where one of the world’s largest telescopes is set to be built on what protesters say is sacred land for native residents.
Work on the $1.4-billion Thirty Meter Telescope was put on hold for two months after the arrests of 31 people blocking access to the site. On Saturday, telescope officials announced construction would start again Wednesday. Protesters will try to peacefully stop the construction atop the Big Island’s Mauna Kea.
Hashtags to follow: #TMTshutdown, #WeAreMaunaKea, #ProtectMaunaKea
(Watch: Ivan Semeniuk on Canada’s role in the project)
What the telescope is
The TMT, which aims to open around 2023, is a stellar time machine that should put even the Hubble Space Telescope to shame. Its main mirror will be wider than a National Hockey League rink, collecting 18 million times more light than the human eye can gather. It will peer back to see what distant stars looked like billions of years ago, giving scientists the opportunity to explore fundamental questions about dark matter and dark energy, information that could allow them to make conclusions about the future of our universe.
Why Hawaii?
Mauna Kea was selected as the site for the observatory over Chile’s Cerro Armazones mountain in 2009. Astronomers like the site, which is managed by the University of Hawaii and subleased to Thirty Meter Telescope, because its summit is well above the clouds and it provides a clear view of the sky for 300 days a year. There’s also very little air and light pollution.
What native Hawaiians say
Opponents say the project will desecrate land believed by native Hawaiians to be the home of deities. Some say it’s time to curb development on the mountain, where 13 other telescopes sit.
The anti-telescope movement exploded on social media with celebrities such actor Jason Momoa, who is native Hawaiian, supporting the cause. A group of protesters – who call themselves protectors – have been camping on the mountain, bracing for when construction resumes. They sleep in vehicles or on cots under a tent, bundling up in temperatures that in recent days have dipped to about 30 degrees at night.
“When the public looks at Mauna Kea, what you see are telescopes,” says Kahookahi Kanuha, who was among those arrested. “So the assumption is that this mountain belongs to foreign scientists.”
What the government says
Governor David Ige has said Hawaii must do a better job of caring for the mountain, but he said Thirty Meter Telescope has a right to proceed with construction.
Who’s paying for it
Partners for the non-profit building the telescope include India, China, Canada, Japan and the Thirty Meter Telescope Observatory Corporation, which was formed by the University of California and the California Institute of Technology.
(More: Ivan Semeniuk explains Canada’s TMT challenge)
The Canadian government is supplying $243.5-million to the project, and its main task is to build the telescope’s colossal $150-million dome. In exchange for its investment, Canada gets access to 15 to 20 per cent of the telescope’s time. But the enclosure has to be up before construction of the telescope can begin.
The telescope will also rely on a Canadian-built system on the back of the telescope that compensates for distortion by the Earth’s atmosphere.
With a report from Ivan Semeniuk