Secondary TMT Site Offers Problems of its Own

Canada-France-Hawaii telescope. PC: University of Hawai‘i

With the Thirty Meter Telescope’s (TMT) main location on Maunakea, the subject of much protest, the secondary location for the project is now being looked at with serious consideration.

That secondary location is the island of La Palma, one of the Canary Islands off the coast of Spain. However, according to a recent article in Science Magazine, La Palma is also looking like “another bed of nails” for the project.

The article, which came out Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2019, states, “Astronomers say that the 2,250-meter-high site,” about half as high as Maunakea, “is inferior for observations,” and that “Canada, one of six TMT partners—which also include Japan, China, India, the California Institute of Technology, and the University of California—is especially reluctant to make the move and could withdraw from the $1.4 billion project, which can ill afford to lose funding.”

Finally, an environmental group on La Palma called Ben Magec is “determined to fight the TMT in court and has succeeded in delaying its building permit. It says the conservation area that the TMT wants to build on contains archaeological artifacts.

To read the full article check out this link to Science Magazine online.