Astronomy - September 2015

ASTRONEWS

16 ASTRONOMY • SEPTEMBER 2015

This year has seen a storm of protests over

the upcoming $1.4 billion Thirty Meter

Telescope (TMT) construction near the

summit of Hawaii’s Mauna Kea. The Big

Island’s central peak is the premier observ-

ing location in the Northern Hemisphere

— perhaps in the world — and is also

deeply connected to Native Hawaiian cul-

ture and traditions. Since the University of

Hawaii’s 2.2-meter telescope saw first light

there in 1970, Mauna Kea has amassed 13

telescopes owned by research institutions

from around the globe with science span-

ning the radio to optical wavelengths.

The site’s dark skies and clear weather

are unparalleled for astronomical use,

but many Native Hawaiians and conser-

vationists argue that the mountain peak

has surpassing importance as a cultural

and natural site that insensitive scientific

activities and especially the latest round

of construction are destroying. Hawaiians

opposing what they see as further desecra-

tion of sacred land have protested TMT’s

placement since its site selection.

At the end of March, they blocked con-

struction access to Mauna Kea’s summit,

resulting in dozens of arrests and prompt-

ing Hawaii’s governor, David Ige, to issue

a construction moratorium April 7 while

the groups involved — the state of Hawaii,

the TMT Observatory Corporation, the

University of Hawaii (who manages the

land), Hawaiian cultural groups, and others

— searched for an agreeable resolution.

On May 26, Ige announced a compro-

mise: Construction on TMT would resume,

but 25 percent of the telescopes currently

on the mountain (all of which are active)

must be dismantled before the completion

THE FUTURE

OF HAWAIIAN

ASTRONOMY

of TMT, and no new “footprints” can be

established, meaning all future telescopes

must be built on pre-existing sites. An older

plan set in 2010 also outlined this goal, but

the university will make it legally binding.

The first telescope to cease operations will

be the California Institute of Technology’s

Submillimeter Observatory, effective this

month. The University of Hawaii promised

to complete a plan for the additional obser-

vatories to be closed by the end of the year.

In his statement, Ige explicitly upheld

TMT’s legal adherence (including comple-

tion of an environmental impact study) and

right to proceed but also acknowledged that

“in many ways, we have failed the moun-

tain.” The state of Hawaii leases the land

under and around the telescopes — known

as the Mauna Kea Science Reserve — to

the University of Hawaii, who manages its

use and is tasked with stewardship of the

mountain. In light of concerns over this

stewardship, when the university’s lease

expires in 2033, more than 40 of the 45 acres

that constitutes the reserve will return to the

Department of Land and Natural Resources

(DLNR). The DLNR also will extend the

lease (for the land immediately under the

observatory facilities) for “substantially less”

than the original 65-year term.

TMT is only one of the upcoming genera-

tion of extremely large ground-based tele-

scopes, which includes the Giant Magellan

Telescope (GMT, composed of seven mirrors

spanning 25 meters) and the European

Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT, with a

39-meter primary mirror), both to be built in

Chile. The GMT moved into its construction

phase June 3 and expects to see first light in

2021, and the E-ELT is scheduled to begin

science operations in 2024. — K. H.

Hubble spots migrating white dwarfs

LATER MASS LOSS. Using

the Hubble Space Telescope to

study globular cluster 47 Tucanae

in ultraviolet light, astronomers

for the first time have captured

snapshots of the 40-million-year

migration of stellar remnant white

dwarfs (visible as tiny bright blue

specks in this image) from the

core of the dense star cluster to

its outskirts as they slowly lose

mass. The surprise came when the

study, whose results appeared in

the May 1 issue of The Astrophysical

Journal, revealed relatively young

white dwarfs just beginning their

journey from the center. Previously,

astronomers thought that stars lost

most of their mass 100 million years

before becoming white dwarfs.

Yet the discovery of young stellar

remnants still near the cluster cen-

ter indicates that stars actually lose

only 40 to 50 percent of their mass

just 10 million years before entering

the white dwarf phase; otherwise,

such young white dwarfs would

have been found farther from the

cluster’s heart. — Karri Ferron

CONTESTED LAND. Protests over land use on Mauna Kea in Hawaii came to a head this spring when con-

struction officially started on the Thirty Meter Telescope. The telescope will move forward as planned, but it will

be the last new site cleared on the mountain’s summit. TMT INTERNATIONAL OBSERVATORY

SINISTER MATTER. Scientists discovered a “left-handed” twisting magnetic field that could explain why most of the

universe today comprises left-handed normal matter instead of right-handed antimatter.

NASA/ESA/H.

RICHER AND J. HE

YL (UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA)