Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Monday 26 august 2019
Astronomer: 'Magic' nights make Hawaii best telescope site

By CALEB JONES building permit application
Associated Press for the La Palma site a few
HONOLULU (AP) — When weeks ago.
starlight from billions of "There's lots of good sci-
years ago zips across the ence to be done from the
universe and finally comes Canary Islands," Pisciotta
into focus on Earth, astrono- said.
mers want their telescopes Not all Native Hawaiians
to be in the best locations are opposed to the tele-
possible to see what's out scope. Some tout the edu-
there. cational and economic op-
Despite years of legal bat- portunities it would bring to
tles and months of protests the Big Island. Others have
by Native Hawaiian oppo- compared modern astron-
nents, the international co- omers to their Polynesian
alition that wants to build ancestors who used stars to
the world's largest tele- navigate their wooden out-
scope in Hawaii insists that riggers across the Pacific
the islands' highest peak — and discover new lands —
Mauna Kea — is the best including Hawaii.
place for their $1.4 billion Mauna Kea stands nearly
instrument. 14,000 feet (4,300 meters)
But just barely. above sea level, more than
Thirty Meter Telescope of- twice as high as the Span-
ficials acknowledge that ish site that is already home
their backup site atop a to the world's largest opti-
peak on the Spanish Ca- This file image made by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows M106 with additional infor- cal telescope. Like Hawaii's
nary island of La Palma is mation captured by amateur astronomers. Big Island, the Spain site has
a comparable observa- Associated Press good weather, a stable at-
tory location, and that it mosphere and very little
wouldn't cost more money ber. "When the air is super infrared light that ema- space and positioned to light pollution.
or take extra time to build stable above the site, you nates from the space ob- block bright stars while al- Thirty Meter Telescope
it there. get images that you sim- jects. lowing telescopes on Earth would be a next genera-
There's also no significant ply couldn't get anyplace But John Mather, an astro- to see the planets orbiting tion model that's expected
opposition to putting the else." physicist who won the No- them. to transform ground-based
telescope on La Palma like Bolte, who has used exist- bel Prize in Physics in 2006 Those advancements astronomy — allowing sci-
there is in Hawaii, where ing Mauna Kea telescopes, for his work on the Big Bang could level the playing entists to see deeper into
some Native Hawaiians said those "magic" Hawaii theory, says there are other field between places such space than previously pos-
consider the mountain sa- nights could hold discover- ways to get that data. as Mauna Kea and La Pal- sible. Its large mirror will
cred and have blocked ies that might be missed in Mather, the senior project ma, said astrophysicist Avi produce sharper, more de-
trucks from hauling con- La Palma. scientist for NASA's James Loeb, who chairs Harvard tailed images of space.
struction equipment to "Let's suppose one of your Webb Space Telescope, University's astronomy de- "You can get images that
Mauna Kea's summit for big science cases is to look planned for launch into partment. are 12 times sharper than
more than a month. for life on planets that are space in 2021, said the new "One thing that you need the Hubble Space Tele-
But Hawaii has advantages orbiting other stars," he instrument will be extremely to keep in mind is that hu- scope," Bolte said.
that scientists say make it said. "The star is so much effective at gathering infra- mans can change the sys- And most of the same sci-
slightly better: higher alti- brighter than the planet red light. The atmosphere tem as to compensate for ence planned for Hawaii
tude, cooler temperatures, you're trying to observe, it's won't get in the way of the the slightly worse condi- would still get done in Spain
and rare star-gazing mo- really hard to do." telescope's imaging capa- tions" in Spain, Loeb said. "In — it would just take longer.
ments that will allow the The advanced optics and bilities because it won't be the end, it might perform as "Depending on the kind of
cutting-edge telescope to huge size of the Thirty Me- on Earth. well or maybe even better." science you want to do,
reach its full potential. ter Telescope, especially if Data from the Webb tele- Loeb agreed that Mauna it's going to be a 10% hit to
"Every once in a while at built at Mauna Kea's higher scope can be combined Kea is a slightly better loca- a 50% hit in speed," Bolte
Mauna Kea, you get one altitude, could allow scien- with information from other tion for infrared observa- said. "You are going to
of those magic nights," tists to more easily detect Earth-based telescopes to tions. But La Palma is "an ex- have to observe that much
said University of Califor- potentially life-filled plan- compensate for the infra- cellent site, so there would longer at La Palma to get
nia, Santa Cruz astronomy ets, Bolte said. red advantage that Mau- be exceptional science the same quality data."
and astrophysics professor To see distant planets near na Kea has over La Palma, done there," he added. José Manuel Vilchez, an
Michael Bolte, a Thirty Me- bright stars, astronomers Mather said. The Native Hawaiian oppo- astronomer with Spain's
ter Telescope board mem- use telescopes to capture He said Webb will open nents call themselves "pro- Higher Council of Scien-
up "new territory that you'll tectors" of Mauna Kea and tific Research and a for-
never be able to tackle aren't concerned about mer member of the sci-
from the ground." their mountain's advantag- entific committee of the
Mather is also working on a es for astronomers. They just Astrophysics Institute of the
longer-term solution to the want the telescope group Canary Islands, said that
problem of seeing Earth- to abandon Hawaii. building the telescope on
like planets orbiting distant That would "be a win for ev- La Palma would not be a
stars, which he likened to eryone," said protest leader downgrade.
seeing a "firefly next to a Kealoha Pisciotta shortly af- "We are talking about the
spotlight." ter Thirty Meter Telescope best of the best. One is a
It's a large "star shade" that officials announced they 10, the other is a 9.9," Vil-
would be launched far into would move forward with a chez said. q