Tension in U.S. Astronomy Community as Funding Decision Looms for Giant Telescopes
There’s a bit of tension right now in the U.S. astronomy community and, perhaps unsurprisingly, it has to do with telescopes — extremely large telescopes, in fact. Here’s what’s going on.
The National Science Foundation (NSF), a source of public funding that two powerful next-gen observatories have been banking on for financial support, is facing pressure to go forward with only one telescope. This is because last month, the National Science Board — which is basically an advisory committee for the NSF — recommended that it cap its giant telescope budget at $1.6 billion. This is a lot of money, but it’s just not enough for both. The board even says the NSF will have until only May of this year to decide which telescope gets the go-ahead.
Yet, both telescopes are already in the middle of construction, both are equally important and both are actually supposed to work together to fulfill a wide-eyed dream for astronomers. Because of how utterly huge they’re meant to be, they’re expected to one-up even NASA’s $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in many ways. That’s the gold-mirrored, silvery-shielded trailblazer sitting a million miles from Earth right now, finding deep space gems so quickly it’s normalizing us to seeing things humanity once couldn’t fathom seeing. Imagine something better.
“To my knowledge, neither telescope today has a path forward without the investment by NSF,” John O’Meara, chief scientist at the Keck Observatory, told Space.com. “I’ve said in other interviews that ‘great vision should drive great budget, not vice versa,’ and I believe it here.”
One of the big scopes is the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT). It’s taking shape as you read this in the clear-skied deserts of Chile, and it’s projected to cost something like $2.54 billion as a whole. The other is called The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). That one’s location is a bit more controversial. It’s planned to decorate a mountain in Hawaii called Mauna Kea, but locals have protested the decision because this stunning volcanic peak that boasts low humidity and gentle winds (perfect conditions for astronomy) is extremely meaningful in native Hawaiian culture. It’s a fraught situation, as 13 other telescopes already live in the area and some local people say the facilities are impacting the natural environment. In terms of cost, however, the projected amount is just about symmetrical to the GMT’s.
“They’re expensive,” Eric Isaacs, the president of Carnegie Science, which has provided more than $200 million in private funding for the GMT, told Space.com “Not so much that the NSF couldn’t do it — but they’d have to move things around and decide that’s a priority.”
As of now, both telescope crews seem to remain hopeful while waiting for a decision. “Our international consortium is fully committed to successfully completing the $2.54 billion Giant Magellan Telescope,” the GMT team told Space.com. “We read with great interest the NSB’s recommendation to the NSF and are eager to work with the NSF to advance US leadership in astronomy for the next generation of astronomers,” a spokesperson for the TMT told Space.com. Isaacs acknowledges there’s some natural competition due to the $1.6 billion announcement, but all in all, emphasizes that the teams have a united front. “We’re sticking together,” he said. “We were hoping NSF would come up with anything at this point, and they’re really waking up to this.”
Telescope friends
There’s a key reason these telescopes are meant to be companions. Each can find the other’s missing pieces; together, they can paint a picture of the universe in its grand totality. The GMT is going to be on call for the Southern Hemisphere, while the TMT will have the Northern Hemisphere. Both also have complementary expertises. Some things the TMT can do, the GMT won’t be as trained on. But the GMT can pick up where the TMT leaves off in other regards. Tag-team vibes. In this way, while holding hands and walking through the cosmos, the telescopes are supposed to be able to execute science our current robotic eyes on the sky simply can’t compete with. How could a ground-based telescope view things the spaceborne JWST can’t, you wonder? The quick answer is that a telescope on our planet can be bigger than one in space. For now, at least.
The TMT, which just finished polishing the 100th of its 492 total mirror segments, is planned to have a primary mirror that’s (obviously) 30 meters, or 100 feet, in diameter. The GMT will have seven 27.6-foot-wide (8.4 m) mirror segments positioned in a pattern that
