Protestors have also cited environmental reasons, with concerns for endangered birds and insects that make their homes in the summit’s fragile habitats. The telescopes on the summit have proven invaluable to astronomy - they’ve mapped the Milky Way, confirmed the presence of the Kuiper Belt in the outer solar system, and provided hard evidence of the supermassive black hole in our galaxy’s center.īut new construction often occurred over the protest of Native Hawaiians, to whom the summit is the sacred meeting point of Papahānaumoku (Earth Mother) and Wākea (Sky Father). The atmosphere above the mountain is dry and thin, and the skies are exceedingly dark, ideal for visible, infrared, and millimeter-wavelength observations of the universe. The university has subleased land from this Maunakea Science Reserve to an increasing number of observatories over the years, including the W. The generous lease amounts to almost all of the summit above 11,500 ft (3,505 m). The university built its first, 2.2-meter telescope on the summit in the 1960s, and in 1968 the Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources gave the University of Hawaii a 65-year lease for land within a 4 km (2.5 mi) radius around it. Since the 1960s, Mauna Kea has come to symbolize a touchpoint between groundbreaking science and cultural traditions. With the observatories’ leases up for renewal in 2033 and the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope still in limbo, the re-organization could change the face of astronomy at the summit. The University of Hawaii has overseen the construction of 13 telescopes on the peak of Mauna Kea over the past 50 years - each one larger and more groundbreaking than the last.īut with the passage of a law inspired by Native Hawaiian protests, the volcanic summit will soon transition to new management: an 11-member board that includes a broad spectrum of voices. Keck Observatory (I & II), NASA Infrared Telescope Facility, Canada France Hawaii Telescope, and Gemini North Telescope From left-to-right: United Kingdom Infrared Telescope, Caltech Sub-Millimeter Observatory (closed 2015), James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, Smithsonian Sub-Millimeter Array, Subaru Telescope, W.M.
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