Thirty Meter Telescope gets $200 million boost

William Atkins
Thursday, 06 December 2007 22:58

Science - Space

The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation gave the University of California and the California Institute of Technology a commitment of $200 million for future development and construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT).        

The TMT, formerly called the California Extremely Large Telescope, will become the largest optical-infrared telescope in the world when it is completed. It will be a large segmented-mirror optical and infrared telescope. The optical design is a Ritchey-Chretien two-mirror system. The primary mirror is 30 meters (about 98.4 feet) in diameter. It is scheduled for completion at the end of 2014.

Design and construction work is being overseen by the University of California, the California Institute of Technology, and the Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy (ACURA).

According to the University of California at Santa Cruz website article “Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Commits $200 Million Support for Thirty-Meter Telescope,” UCSC president Robert C. Dynes states, "This is a tremendous investment by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation in a path-breaking scientific tool with great potential for unlocking new insights about the nature of the universe. UC and Caltech are pleased that the Foundation has recognized the tremendous research capacity of our institutions, and we look forward to the exciting findings that this telescope will deliver in the future."

In the same article, California Institute of Technology (CalTech) president Jean-Lou Chameau stated, "The impressive scope of this project has now been matched by the extraordinary generosity from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Caltech and the UC System are thrilled with the foundation's confidence in the project, and we and our partners are eager to create a history-making tool that will allow us to see farther into the universe than ever before,"

The December 5, 2007 UCSC press release also stated, “The TMT will consist “of a primary mirror with 492 individual 1.45-meter segments that together measure 30 meters in diameter, providing more than eight times the collecting area of the current largest telescope. All segments will be under precision computer control so that they will work together as a single mirror. This revolutionary technology was developed for the 10-meter mirrors in the two Keck telescopes in Hawaii.”

The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) website is found at: http://www.tmt.org/.

Founded in 2000 by Gordon E. Moore and Betty I. Moore, the mission of The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to “advance environmental conservation and cutting-edge scientific research around the world and to improve the quality of life in the San Francisco Bay Area.”

Gordon Moore is the co-founder of the Intel Corporation and the originator of Moore’s Law, which states that transistors can be placed on an integrated circuit so that their numbers increase exponentially, doubling about every two years.

For more information on The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, visit the foundation's website at; http://www.moore.org/.