Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project

  • January 13, 2024
  • Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
  • Category: DPN Topics
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Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project

Subject :S&T

Section: Space tech

Context:

  • An official delegation from the Department of Science and Technology recently visited Mauna Kea, an inactive volcano in Hawaii, to address challenges facing the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project.

Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) Project:

  • TMT is a planned extremely large telescope (ELT) that has become controversial due to its location on Mauna Kea on the Island of Hawaii, USA.
  • The TMT, a collaborative effort involving the U.S., Japan, China, Canada, and India, aims to build a 30-meter diameter telescope for optical and infrared observations into deep space and toobserve cosmic objects with unprecedented sensitivity.

Alternate site:

  • Despite Indian approval in 2014, the project has encountered obstacles, including local opposition on cultural and religious grounds.
  • There are plans to relocate the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) to an alternate site due to challenges faced at Mauna Kea.
  • The Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos (ORM) in Spain’s Canary Islands is considered a potential alternative.

India’s contribution:

  • India plans to be a significant contributor to the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project, offering hardware, instrumentation, and software valued at $200 million.
  • The contributions include segment support assemblies, actuators, edge sensors, segment polishing, segment coating, and 83 of the 492 precisely polished mirrors required for the telescope.
  • The Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIAP) is spearheading the consortium of Indian institutions involved in the TMT project.

Other global scientific collaborations of India:

1. Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) Project
  • The Indian scientists contributed in several aspects such as designing algorithms for the analysis of signals from gravitational waves, estimating energy and power radiated from black holes etc.
  • Now LIGO-India is a planned advanced gravitational-wave observatory to be located in India (Hingoli, Maharashtra) as part of the worldwide network.
2. CERN Project
  • India became a full Associate Member of the world’s largest particle Physics laboratory CERN in 2017, thereby getting full access to data generated there.
  • The contribution of Indian scientists there is mainly in building the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the construction of two significant CERN experiments, CMS and ALICE.
3. Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR)
  • FAIR is coming up at Darmstadt, Germany for studying the building blocks of matter and the evolution of the Universe.
  • FAIR is a sophisticated accelerator complex that will use high energy and ion beams to mimic the condition inside the core of the stars and early phases of the universe.
  • The role of Indian scientists would be to build NUSTAR (Nuclear Structure, Astrophysics and Reactions), CBM (Compressed Baryonic Matter) and PANDA (Antiproton Annihilation at Darmstadt).
4. Square Kilometre Array (SKA)
  • India has joined nine other countries to build the world’s largest and most sophisticated radio telescope called the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).
  • The core of the telescope will be based in the Karoo desert in South Africa. Since the total detection area of the receiver dishes would exceed 1 square kilometre, it is called a Square Kilometre Array.
5. International-Thermonuclear-Experimental-Reactor (ITER)
  • The International-Thermonuclear-Experimental-Reactor (ITER) is focused on creating an environment mimicking the Sun in laboratory conditions using nuclear fusion.
  • India’s scientists and institutions such as the Institute for Plasma Research, Ahmedabad are playing an important role in this.

About Mauna Kea:

  • An inactive volcano located on the island of Hawaiʻi, with a peak altitude of 4,207.3 meters (13,803 feet) above sea level.
  • It is the highest point in the state of Hawaii and the second-highest island peak globally, just 38 meters shorter than its neighbour, Mauna Loa.
  • Some authorities consider it the tallest mountain globally, measured from its underwater base, surpassing Mount Everest’s height above sea level.
  • Mauna Kea is also ranked eighth by topographic isolation.

Source: The Hindu

Science and tech Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project