Keck observatory5/3/2023 If ever there has been a piece of technology that requires as much exactness and meticulousness to build as it does imagination and faith in the unknown, it is the telescope. The Keck telescopes are among the most sought after resources in astronomy. The reality is, neither narrative is as straightforward as it may seem. And I don’t think anyone understands them all.” It’s very hard unless you’ve been immersed in the situation to appreciate the nuances. They see it as a spark for something much bigger than just the TMT. “There is a cultural element in Hawaii that views this event in a grander light, as an awakening for that community. “From the outside looking in, it must look like a very messy battle between environment and culture and cash and science, and it’s very difficult to disentangle all that,” said Doug Simons, an astronomer and the executive director of the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope on Mauna Kea. Those have to take precedent over everything else.” “What is a right is our right to continue to practice our religion, and our right to a clean and healthful environment. “Building a telescope on conservation land in Hawaii is not a right,” said Kealoha Pisciotta, the president of the Mauna Kea Anaina Hou, an organization dedicated to protecting Mauna Kea from development. But the Hawaiians and others who oppose the Thirty Meter Telescope have a strong case for their position, too-one that goes much deeper than science versus religion.Īn artist’s rendering of what the TMT Observatory might look like if it is built. The astronomers can rightly point out that there are few realms of science that are devoted to questions as lofty and awe-inspiring as those that come from inspecting the swirling, twinkling, origins of the universe. The battle for Mauna Kea is ultimately a debate about what is truly sacred, what it means to be human, and who gets to decide. This is a clash between religion and science, but it is not just that. Over the past year, this fight spun out into a lawsuit that’s now before the Hawaii Supreme Court. Astronomers want to move forward with plans to build their $1 billion observatory, known as the Thirty Meter Telescope, or TMT, near the mountain’s summit, while local protesters are rallying against the project in an attempt to reclaim a unique and sacred place for the Hawaiian people. The placement of these telescopes-and a plan to build a new, mega-telescope-is the source of enormous tension in Hawaii, where Mauna Kea is at the center of an intense cultural and political debate. And near the summit of Mauna Kea, there is a cluster of enormous telescopes, including some of the most powerful on the planet. On its slopes, there are some 100 archaeological sites, most of them heiau, or shrines. The volcano remains sacred today, but not only to Hawaiians. Mauna Kea is the son of Wākea, the sky father, and of Papahānaumoku, the Earth mother. In the Kumulipo, the ancient chant that tells the story of how the Hawaiian Islands and the Hawaiian people came to be, the volcano is considered kino lau, the physical form of the gods. To subsequent generations of Native Hawaiians, Mauna Kea was and had always been a temple. that ocean-faring voyagers crossed the Pacific in double-hulled canoes to make their home in the Hawaiian Islands. And it wasn’t until sometime between 300 A.D. But Mauna Kea is just a baby by geologic standards, among the newest volcanoes on a 40-million-year-old archipelago’s youngest island.Īt the time when Mauna Kea formed, the global population of human ancestors numbered in the tens of thousands. Measuring from its base on the ocean bed, it is the tallest mountain on Earth. Mauna Kea, on the Big Island of Hawaii, is a tremendous shield volcano, the second largest in our solar system. One million years ago, great ribbons of lava poured out of the sea floor, piled on top of one another, and eventually grew into the mountain that is now called Mauna Kea. We recommended developing finite element models of the two telescopes to reliably estimate the seismic response of the telescopes and ensure all critical and high-value equipment, including instruments, would be protected during an earthquake.This story begins with an earth-cracking volcanic eruption. SGH performed a preliminary feasibility study for a new seismic restraint system.
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