51³Ô¹ÏPro

Invitation to Participate in Development of Exemplar Key Science Programs For GMT and TMT

The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) and its collaborative partners, the Thirty Meter Telescope International Observatory (TIO) and the Giant Magellan Telescope Organization (GMTO) invite all interested U.S. scientists to participate in the development of exemplar Key Science Programs (KSPs) for the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) and Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), preferably working in concert.

A new research frontier in astronomy and astrophysics will open in the mid-2020s with the advent of ground-based extremely large optical-infrared telescopes (ELTs) with primary mirrors in the 20-m – 40-m range. U.S. scientific leadership in astronomy and astrophysics will be significantly enhanced if the broad U.S. community can take advantage of the power of these new ELTs. In that context, the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) National...

51³Ô¹ÏPro Science Advisory Committee (SAC) Meets in Pasadena

Members of the TMT Science Advisory Committee (SAC) met in Pasadena on April 9&10, 2018 for their quarterly gathering. SAC representatives reported on their respective activities for the TMT project and discussed top-level requirements for TMT’s suite of science instruments.

Thirty Meter Telescope’s Refrigeration Cooling System Passes Conceptual Design Review

Pasadena, March 16, 2018 - The conceptual design and scope of TMT’s Refrigerant Cooling System (REFR), which was executed and developed by a close Chinese-North American collaboration, successfully passed a recent conceptual design review. This system will be used to provide cooling to electronics enclosures mounted on the telescope structure. The system also maintains several TMT instrument enclosures at subzero temperatures to reduce thermal...

Planning for the Next Generation of TMT Science Instruments is Already Underway

Pasadena, CA - March 8, 2018 - Future users of the Thirty Meter Telescope are now preparing studies of the science instruments that will be deployed after the telescope's first-light instrumentation suite.

Mirror Blank from Japan Successfully Shipped to Bengaluru, India

The shipment of TMT’s first meniscus-shaped primary mirror segment to the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) in Bengaluru (Bangalore) has just been completed.

Thirty Meter Telescope Narrow Field InfraRed Adaptive Optics System Real-Time Controller Proceeds to Fabrication Phase

The Real-Time Controller of TMT’s Narrow Field InfraRed Adaptive Optics System (NFIRAOS) successfully passed its final design review and is ready to proceed to the fabrication phase, which is expected to last approximately four years.

TMT’s first-light instrument enters final design phase

Following a successful second IRIS Preliminary Design Phase Review (PDR-2) at the TMT Project Office in Pasadena, IRIS is proceeding into its Final Design phase. The focus of the second review, held in September, involved an assessment of the IRIS software (including its data reduction system) and electrical design (including its detectors) as well as programmatic aspects spanning project cost and overall schedule.

TMT holds a partnership meeting with China to discuss first light instrument

Representatives from the Thirty Meter Telescope’s (TMT’s) Wide-Field Optical Spectrograph (WFOS) team and TMT’s China partners gathered on October 16 in Beijing, China to discuss potential collaboration during the next stage of the conceptual design of WFOS.