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About the Project:

    Astronomers, like most scientists, have the luxury of a profession which places an emphasis on our ability to allow the universe to amaze us.  Once these perplexing features are identified, a lot of analysis and hard work goes into describing and comprehending them.
    However, in order to successfully accomplish this we require telescopes; the instruments used to identify the wonders of our universe.  Having a larger telescope is equivalent to looking at the world with our eyes wide open as opposed to partially shut.  This is the motivation for developing the Thirty Metre Telescope (TMT) which, once constructed, will be the largest telescope ever built and is expected to be fully operational in 2016.  It is being developed through a private-public partnership, involving groups from both Canada and the United States of America, first formalized in June 2003.

The TMT belongs to a class of telescopes called Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs) which are the next step up from the largest that exist today at 8-10 m in diameter.  It will be made up of over 500 hexagonal mirror segments that span a 30 m diameter and will operate at both visible and infrared (IR) wavelengths employing cutting-edge adaptive optics technology.

A report to the Canadian Astronomical Society released in 2000 identified the Very Large Optical Telescope (VLOT) project in conjunction with the TMT as the ‘highest priority project’.  Such a telescope will be able to see farther than ever before and will work well with upcoming space missions such as JWST, Hubble’s successor, and the Terrestrial Planet Finder.

The TMT is designed so that its observations will help answer questions about the formation of stars, planets and galaxies, about dark matter and dark energy and the frequency and types of extrasolar planets Planets that reside in solar systems other than our own. They are difficult to detect and most that have been found seem to resemble Jupiter more so than Earth..  Although, as many of the greatest scientific discoveries in history were unintentional, we look forward to finding a host of unanticipated wonders about the universe we live in.

As you navigate this site keep an eye out for terms in greenThese boxes give extra information  which are linked to a glossary for further explanation, or just pass the cursor over them to open a text box of information.  Be sure to return frequently as this website will cover the progress of the TMT project and be updated accordingly.

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