The Thirty Meter Telescope is a new class of extremely large telescopes that will allow us to see deeper into space and observe cosmic objects with unprecedented sensitivity.
TMT will be a unique tool for probing many outstanding open questions in astronomy.
The Thirty Meter Telescope is being designed and developed by the TMT International Observatory LLC (TIO).
The Board of the Thirty Meter Telescope selected Maunakea in July 2009 after a rigorous five-year campaign spanning the entire globe that measured virtually every atmospheric feature that might affect the performance of the telescope.
TIO recently celebrated the completion of another eight newly polished roundels produced for the TMT primary mirror by Canon in Japan. The TIO and NAOJ teams responsible for the mirror polishing held a face-to-face meeting virtually on April 27, 2021 to confirm that the polishing results met the demanding requirements for these parts.
TMT’s Science Advisory Committee (SAC), which has been meeting bi-monthly since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, recently met to address the project status, its scientific potential and suitable instrumentation. The SAC is composed of representatives from each TMT partner who advise the Project on TMT’s design, strategies and operational matter that can have a significant impact on TMT science.
TMT and Coherent reached a new milestone this month with the completion of the first two roundels for TMT’s Primary Mirror (M1). Coherent precisely contoured and polished the optical surfaces of the roundels under the direction of TIO. They are the first of 231 roundels Coherent will provide for the TMT primary mirror array, nearly half of the total of 492 required to complete the telescope.
TMT, in partnership with Larson Packaging Company, recently celebrated the successful design and completion of TMT’s Primary Mirror Assembly Shipping Container (PMASC). The shipping container will enclose and protect TMT’s primary mirror segments during transport and storage between their international destinations.
A major milestone for the international Thirty Meter Telescope project (TMT) was reached in October 2020, as TMT selected California-based Coherent, Inc. for the Hexagonal cutting of the US allocation of its Primary Mirror (M1) segments. Coherent is one of the world’s leading providers of photonic solutions, including lasers and custom optics, and has extensive experience in large-scale precision optics and assemblies, such as those required...
