New Scientist - July 27, 2019

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27 July 2019 | New Scientist | 5

THE construction of the Thirty
Meter Telescope (TMT) in Hawaii
is facing big trouble. Many
indigenous people in Hawaii
say that the project to build an
enormous telescope atop the
dormant volcano Mauna Kea
is steamrolling their culture.
The TMT would be the most
powerful visible-light telescope
ever, producing images more than
12 times as sharp as those from
the Hubble Space Telescope.
But many native Hawaiians take
issue with its proposed location.
According to the Office of
Hawaiian Affairs, “Mauna Kea
is a deeply sacred place that is
revered in Hawaiian traditions”.
Some indigenous people in
Hawaii and others, including

many in the astronomy
community, have protested
against putting the TMT at the
summit of Mauna Kea since the
location was announced in 2009.
A series of legal challenges to
the project culminated in October
2018, when the Supreme Court
of Hawaii upheld its building
permit. Construction was
scheduled to begin on 15 July.
Last week, construction

companies tried to move their
equipment to the summit, but
hundreds of peaceful protesters
blocked the road.
On 17 July, 33 protesters were
arrested and Hawaii governor
David Ige declared a state of
emergency, authorising the
state to bring in the Hawaii Army
National Guard. The 13 existing
telescopes on the volcano have
evacuated their staff.
As New Scientist went to press,
more than 800 astronomers and
students had signed an open letter
denouncing the criminalisation
of protesters and the forceful
building of the telescope.
If the TMT isn’t built on Mauna
Kea, there is a backup site for it in
the Canary Islands, Spain.  ❚

The Thirty Meter Telescope could revolutionise our view of space,
but its volcano-top location is a problem. Leah Crane reports

Engineering

Deeper water wells
are unsustainable
THE US’s thirst for water
is encouraging a trend of
drilling ever-deeper for
groundwater, according to
an analysis of 11.8 million
wells across the country.
But the strategy is
unsustainable for reasons
including the price of
pumping such deep water.
Debra Perrone and Scott
Jasechko at the University
of California, Santa Barbara,
argue that in areas where
deeper groundwater wells
are the only option, water
quality must be protected:
in the past, wastewater has
sometimes been dumped in
such deep reservoirs (Nature
Sustainability, doi.org/
c8pz).  ❚ Adam Vaughan

The moon

Mission to lunar
pole takes off
INDIA’s second moon
mission is on its way.
After a short delay due
to a “technical snag” that
prevented lift-off a week
earlier, the Chandrayaan 2
mission launched on 22 July.
It is expected to touch down
near the moon’s south pole
on 7 September.
The expedition is more
advanced than India’s first
moon mission, and includes
a six-wheeled rover that
will trundle at about
1 centimetre per second
across the lunar surface
and study the chemical
make-up of the dust.
The accompanying lander
will also be able to study
moonquakes.  ❚ Leah Crane

Telescope protests


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All 13
telescopes
on Mauna
Kea have
been
evacuated
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