Why build TMT in Hawaii?
Astronomers have many reasons for wanting a very large telescope on Mauna Kea, and I can tell you that those reasons do not involve giant corporate profits, secret military projects or big astronomer salaries. Many of the reasons involve esoteric scientific questions about why our universe exists at all, how it came to look as it appears to us today, and what else is really out there that we cannot yet see?
But here are questions that may be interesting to many of you: Is there other life out there in space, beyond the Earth? Are there other intelligent beings out there, that we have yet to meet? Are they close enough to us to establish communication, or even some day visit?
We are, right now, on the verge of being able to answer those questions, questions that have remained unanswered for thousands of years, since we first asked them. And we could have those answers within a decade if astronomers are allowed to build the tools they need to do it.
What is needed is a few very large telescopes capable of gathering enough light with high enough resolution to actually measure the gases in the atmospheres of planets orbiting around nearby stars. This requires new extremely large telescopes and we cannot currently afford the cost of sending these large massive telescopes into space.
It was only 10 years ago that we were able to finally discover that there are actually other planets outside our own solar system — and that discovery was largely due to astronomers working with large telescopes on your own mountain, on Mauna Kea, only a few miles from where you live.
Some of these new, even bigger telescopes are now under construction in Chile — but as the ancient Polynesian explorers knew, only half of the universe, only half of the sky, is visible from the Southern Hemisphere. To answer these questions fully, we also need a very large telescope in the Northern Hemisphere — and Mauna Kea is the best place in the world for that telescope.
Would you be interested in hearing the answer to this question within your own lifetime: Are we alone in the universe?
You now hold the key.
Joel Aycock
Hawaiian Acres