TIO's Ben Gallagher's talk on segmented mirrors at the HWO conference.
TIO's Ben Gallagher's talk on segmented mirrors at the HWO conference.
TIO team members attended last week’s conference on the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO; a NASA mission designed to look for signs of life on planets orbiting other stars), where they shared insights on segmented mirror technology and next-generation instrumentation. A special highlight: TMT Optics Lead Ben Gallagher gave a talk on segmented mirrors to a packed room of about 400 attendees. He earned a warm ovation when introduced as the person who delivered the mirrors for JWST. Current HWO concepts rely on segmented hexagonal mirrors, building on technologies pioneered by Keck, JWST, and now being advanced by both TMT and E-ELT.
In addition to the talk on segmented mirrors, TIO's Dave Andersen presented on the complementarity between HWO and TMT. In his work, Dave pointed out how TMT will support HWO both before launch (by refining stellar properties and detecting binaries and other companions) and what it will do to complement the science post-launch. Fully exploring this promising field will require the capabilities of both TMT and HWO.
As the astronomy community looks toward the future, there’s clear recognition of the strong synergy between HWO and ELTs. TMT and the other ELTs will have a much larger collecting area and will have comparable spatial resolution in the near-infrared to HWO in the optical. So only ELTs will really be capable of providing the high resolution spectroscopy and high resolution NIR imaging to get the most out of this NASA great observatory. TMT will offer ELT coverage of roughly one third of the sky from the Northern Hemisphere that is not visible from the other ELTs, which will be necessary to follow-up and complement HWO discoveries. While HWO will search for life on Earth-like worlds around nearby stars, TMT will deliver broader views of these planetary systems and the host stars.
We are grateful for this opportunity and the many supportive conversations around TMT science and instrumentation, and to hear how many in the community are eager to see TMT succeed.