The committee of experts of the US Academy of Science considers that the TMT is a priority, and maintains La Palma as a possible site

TMT
Simulación del TMT. Crédito: M3 Engineering, Telescopio de Treinta Metros
Advertised on
Authors
SCIENCE COMMUNICATION AND OUTREACH UNIT
References
Pathways to Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 2020s

The National Academy of Science of the United States presented, yesterday afternoon, its report Pathways to Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 2020s, a decadal study which identifies priorities for research and makes recommendations for future investment in scientific projects for the next ten years.

Among its conclusions the report specifies the Programme of Extremely Large Telescopes (ELT) as a priority for ground-based astronomy, and stresses the need to invest in at least one of the projects proposed for this type of telescopes, among them the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT).

According to the report, the TMT could be sited either in Hawaii or La Palma. Rafael Rebolo, Director of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) rates this decision as a success “because it means that the scientific evaluation carried out by the higest level committee in the United States considers that the scientific objectives of the TMT are feasible if it is sited in La Palma”.

During 2022 the National Science Foundation (NSF) will carry out an external and exhaustive revision, to evaluate the financialand programmatic viability of each of the American projects for ELT’s. 
 

Link to Pathways to Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 2020s​​​​​

Related projects
Thirty Meter Telescope - TMT
Thirty Meter Telescope - TMT
Una vez construido, el Telescopio de Treinta Metros (Thirty Meter Telescope, TMT) será el telescopio terrestre más avanzado y potente de la historia, así como el telescopio óptico infrarrojo más grande del hemisferio norte que existirá en ese momento. Se incluye entre los denominados de tipo Telescopio Extremadamente Grande por el diámetro de su
In progress
Related news
News type
Press release
Astrophysics
General public
Communications media
Telescopes
Large telescopes
TMT

It may interest you

  • Claude Nicollier tells of his experience as an astronaut at the IAC / Inés Bonnet (IAC)
    Press release
    Claude Nicollier tells of his experience as an astronaut at the IAC
    On Wednesday 30 October, the headquarters of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) received a talk by the first Swiss astronaut, Claude Nicollier, who wanted to share his experience in space with the personnel of the IAC. Claude Nicollier is the first Swiss astronaut to have flown into space. After his studies at the Universities of Geneva and Lausanne, Claude joined ESA as a member of their first group of astronauts. Since 2007 Nicollier has been a Professor at the Federal Polytechnical School at Lausanne. He has spent more than 1000 hours in space (more than 42 days) including a
    Advertised on
  • Nayra Rodríguez Eugenio, director of the AEACI, welcomes the participants of the school
    Press release
    The IAC is celebrating 10 years of Educational Adventure in Astronomy
    Yesterday saw the start of the 10th International School Astronomy Education Adventure in the Canary Islands (AEACI 2024) which will be celebrated during the full week in the IACTEC building in La Laguna (Tenerife), and which 65 teachers from 23 countries are attending. This school, organized by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) together with other scientific and educational institutions, has reached its tenth anniversary, and has given training in the teaching of astronomy to 600 teachers from all over the world. With the title “Explore the Universe with us” the AEACI 2024 has
    Advertised on
  • TOI-2768 b is a Neptune-like exoplanet that orbits a K-type star. Its mass is 7.41 Earths, it takes 1.5 days to complete one orbit of its star, and is 0.027 AU from its star. Its discovery was announced in 2024.
    Press release
    Several Neptune-like planets discovered in a theoretically barren region
    The distribution of planets in the over five thousand distant solar systems discovered to date forms a complex puzzle. There is a region in the planetary orbit graph, known as the " Neptunian desert", where very few Neptune-like planets with orbits of between two and four days period around their star have been recorded to date. Now, a scientific team led by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (IAA-CSIC) , using a novel technique, new planets around red dwarf stars located precisely in
    Advertised on