Science with a 30-Meter Telescope

A 30-meter telescope, operating in wavelengths ranging from the ultraviolet to the mid-infrared, is an essential tool to address questions in astronomy ranging from understanding star and planet formation to unraveling the history of galaxies and the development of large-scale structure in the universe.

The 30-meter aperture permits the telescope to focus more sharply than smaller telescopes by using the power of diffraction of light. The large aperture also collects more light than smaller scopes, allowing images of fainter objects. TMT will therefore reach further and see more clearly than previous telescopes by a factor of 10 to 100 depending on the observation.

In addition to providing nine times the collecting area of the current largest optical/infrared telescopes (the 10-meter Keck Telescopes), TMT will be used with adaptive optics systems to allow diffraction-limited performance, i.e., the best that the optics of the system can theoretically provide. This will provide unparalleled high-sensitivity spatial resolution more than 12 times sharper than what is achieved by the Hubble Space Telescope. For many applications, diffraction-limited observations give gains in sensitivity that scale like the diameter of the mirror to the fourth power, so this increase in size has major implications.

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Exploration of galaxies and large-scale structure in the young universe, including the era in which most of the stars and heavy elements were formed and the galaxies in today’s universe were assembled. TMT will allow detailed spectroscopic analysis of galaxies and subgalactic fragments during the epoch of galaxy assembly. Observations with TMT will help answer questions about the early production and dispersal of the chemical elements, the distribution of baryons within dark matter halos and the processes of hierarchical merging of subgalactic fragments.

The early epoch of the formation and development of the large-scale structures that dominate the universe today should also be observable with the TMT. Studies of the matter power spectrum on small spatial scales, using direct observations of distant galaxies and the intergalactic medium (IGM), provide information on the physics of the early universe and the nature of dark matter that are inaccessible using any other techniques.

Investigations of massive black holes throughout cosmic time. The recently-discovered tight correlation between central black hole mass and stellar bulge velocity dispersion strongly implies that black hole formation and growth is closely tied to the processes that form galaxies. This result also suggests that super massive black holes are at the centers of most or all large galaxies. The TMT combination of high spatial resolution and moderate-to-high spectral resolution will extend our capability to detect and investigate central black holes to cosmological distances. In addition to investigations designed to understand the black hole-galaxy growth issue, nearby supermassive black holes can be analyzed with very high physical resolution. This will allow us to measure general relativistic effects at the center of the Galaxy and to spatially resolve the accretion disks for active black holes in the centers of galaxies to the distance of the Virgo cluster.

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Furthermore, as has been the case for every previous increase in capability of this magnitude, it is very likely that the scientific impact of TMT will go far beyond what we envision today and TMT will enable discoveries that we cannot anticipate.

The search for knowledge on the summit of Mauna Kea is a sacred mission
Published April 19, 2013 - 12:05am
By CHAD KALEPA BAYBAYAN
Kailua-Kona

I would like to extend my appreciation for Jim Makaala’s letter, “Our ancestors can speak for themselves,” but offer a different perspective.

He asks for replies from chiefs and warriors, that of which I am neither, I am only a humble native of the land.

I am Chad Kalepa Baybayan. I have served as captain and navigator of the Hawaiian deep-sea voyaging canoes Hokulea, Hawaiiloa, and Hokualakai. I am a graduate of UH Hilo’s Ka Haka Ula O Keelikolani College of Hawaiian Language, and I hold a masters degree in Education from Heritage College. I have worked with students and educators sharing the powerful story of the mariner explorers and astronomer navigators who settled these islands. Along with four other Hawaiian men, I was granted the rank of Pwo and inducted into a society of noninstrument master navigators by Master Navigator Pious Mau Piailug in the Satawalese tradition and extended the privilege to teach and pass on the skills, techniques, and values of the oceanic wayfinder.

My relationship with Mauna Kea is grounded in the many occasions this sacred mountain has led me back to my home and my family as a navigator aboard Hawaii’s deep-sea voyaging canoes. At night, as you approach the Big Island, Mauna Kea rises out of the sea, its summit framed and warmed by a blanket of stars. At sea, on a cloudless night, when peering at the awesome sight of Mauna Kea, the stars reach down out of the sky and touch the skin of the mountain and you recognize they are all the same, Mauna Kea and the sky. Mauna Kea is the celestial portal into the universe.

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As explorers, Hawaiians utilized island resources to sustain their communities. The slopes of Mauna Kea contain a record of how, for generations, a very adaptive and intelligent people used the mountain as a vital resource. They excavated the thin-aired slopes of Mauna Kea for high-quality, durable stone to produce the best neolithic tools in the Pacific. The Mauna Kea adze quarry, the largest in the world, offers conclusive evidence the ancients recognized the importance of Mauna Kea’s rich resources and its ability to serve its community by producing the tools to sustain daily life. They ventured to Mauna Kea, reshaped the environment by quarrying rock, left behind evidence of their work, and took materials off the mountain to serve their communities, with the full consent and in the presence of their gods.

Using the resources on Mauna Kea as a tool to serve and benefit the community through astronomy is consistent with the example of the adze quarry. To value astronomy and its work on Mauna Kea, you have to value the importance of “ Ike,” knowledge, and its quest for a greater understanding of the universe we live in. Our ancestors were no different; they sought knowledge from their environment, including the stars, to guide them and to give them a greater understanding of the universe that surrounded them. The science of astronomy helps us to advance human knowledge to the benefit of the community. It teaches us where we have come from, and where we are going. Its impact has been positive, introducing the young to the process of modern exploration and discovery, a process consistent with past traditional practices.

My perspective of Mauna Kea is based on the tradition of the oceanic explorers from whom I descend, a people who left the safety of their coasts, sailed away, and in so doing discovered the stars. As a Hawaiian, I recognize I am a descendant of some of the best naked-eye astronomers the world has known. It is culturally consistent to advocate for Hawaiian participation in a field of science that continues to enable that tradition and a field in which we ought to lead. I firmly believe the highest level of desecration rests in actions that remove the opportunity and choices from the kind of future our youth can own.

http://westhawaiitoday.com/sections/opinion/columns/search-knowledge-summit-mauna-kea-sacred-mission.html