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Exoplanet Detection with the Thirty Meter Telescope
April 1st, 2010

When the 10-meter Keck I telescope first became fully operational in 1992, the only planets known to exist were those in our own solar system. Models of planet formation dutifully reproduced the nine known examples, and most astronomers thought that when other planets were finally seen, those solar systems would look like our own, with giant Jovian planets in the outer regions and small rocky planets in the inner parts.

Mirror Segment Polishing Shines with New Methods
April 1st, 2010

One of the most important milestones in the development and construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) is the precision polishing of TMT’s primary mirror segments. Each of the 492 hexagonal segments, which measure 1.44 meters across from corner-to-corner, must have a surface that is accurate to 100 nanometers (about 1,000 times thinner than a sheet of paper).

Public Roundtable: “Quest for a Living World”
March 12th, 2010

Astronomers have found more than 400 alien worlds orbiting distant stars. So far, nearly all of these exoplanets are bigger than Jupiter and hotter than Mercury – places that appear very unfriendly to life. But astronomers are now starting to identify smaller, more intriguing objects, including potential water worlds and so-called super-Earths. Next-generation telescopes may soon close in on the ultimate goal: Finding alien planets that...

TMT Releases Public Database of its Site Testing Campaign
January 5th, 2010

The Thirty Meter Telescope Project (TMT) is launching a new database containing five years of atmospheric data from the telescope’s initial five candidates sites: Cerro Tolar, Cerro Armazones, and Cerro Tolonchar, Chile; San Pedro Martir, Mexico; and Mauna Kea, Hawaii, the site selected for TMT. A website containing the entire dataset, the largest of its kind, will be released free-of-charge to the public today.

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