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Posted by baalke on June 5, 2006, 11:59 am
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http://pr.caltech.edu/media/Press_Releases/PR12859.html
Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) Passes Conceptual Design Review
Caltech News Release
June 1, 2006
PASADENA, Calif.--The detailed design for the Thirty Meter Telescope
(TMT) developed by a U.S.-Canadian team is capable of delivering on the
full promise of its enormous light-collecting area, according to the
findings of an independent panel of experts.
With the TMT, astronomers will be able to analyze the light from the
first stars born after the Big Bang, directly observe the formation and
evolution of galaxies, see planets around nearby stars, and make
observations that test fundamental laws of physics.
"The successful completion of our conceptual design review means that
the TMT has a strong science vision, good technical requirements, a
thoroughly reviewed design, and a powerful team to carry our work
forward," says Project Manager Gary Sanders.
Now in detailed design, the TMT is a concept for the world's largest
telescope. It consists of a primary mirror with 738 individual
1.2-meter
segments that span 30 meters in total, three times the effective
diameter of the current largest telescopes. All of the segments will be
under exquisite computer control so that they work together as a single
mirror.
The review panel evaluated all aspects of the project, including its
optical design, the telescope structure, science instrumentation, site
testing, management and cost estimate procedures. The panel was
positive
on nearly all fronts and praised in particular the adaptive optics
technology being planned for the giant telescope.
Adaptive optics will allow the TMT to reach the "diffraction limit,"
comparable to a telescope's resolution in space. TMT project engineers
are integrating this system with the designs for the eight science
instruments under detailed study, so the power of the adaptive optics
(AO) system should be available at the beginning of the telescope's
science operations in 2016, the external panel reported following the
May 8-11 conceptual design review.
The baseline adaptive optics system for TMT involves nine laser beams
that are launched from a small telescope at the peak of the structure
that supports the telescope's secondary mirror. These laser beams
reflect off a layer of sodium gas high in Earth's upper atmosphere to
provide artificial points of light analogous to distant stars. These
point-like laser reflections drift and wobble just like the star light,
giving the AO system reference points to use anywhere in the sky as it
compensates for distortions of the star light by Earth's ever-changing
atmosphere. This technology has been pioneered at the Lick Observatory,
the Gemini Observatory 8-meter telescopes and the Keck Observatory
10-meter telescopes.
TMT is also studying the potential for an adaptive secondary mirror for
the telescope. This would involve covering the bottom of a flexible
glass surface as large as the primary mirror in many current telescopes
(a concave hemisphere 3.6 meters in diameter) with hundreds of tiny
pistons to push and pull the surface of the mirror in minute
increments.
A computer controls these movements many times per second, as it works
to adjust the mirror so it has the exact opposite shape of the
distortions in the incoming star light.
Much of the TMT's scientific work will be done in the infrared, where
the diffraction limit is easier to attain, young stars and galaxies are
to be found, and the opportunities for new discoveries are abundant.
The eight scientific instruments in detailed design for the TMT are
huge
in comparison to current-generation astronomical instruments, and
equivalently more complex. Each instrument is the size of school bus or
larger, and they rest on two platforms on either side of the telescope
that are each the size of a basketball court. The biggest technical
challenge among the instruments is the Planetary Formation Instrument,
which employs "extreme" adaptive optics in an effort to directly image
other planets, the board found.
The technical requirements for the telescope, its structure, and its
control system are clear and appropriate for this stage of the project,
the review board concluded.
"The panel's report is glowing in its praise and confident that TMT is
on track," says Richard Ellis, the Steele Family Professor of Astronomy
at the California Institute of Technology, one of the partners in the
project. "We'll decide in mid-2008 where to build the telescope and
then
start construction in early 2009."
The TMT is a collaboration between the California Institute of
Technology, the University of California, the Association of
Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. (AURA), and the
Association
of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy (ACURA), with
significant work being done by industry and by university teams
studying
instrument designs.
Canadians welcome the external panel's endorsement of the depth and
quality of the TMT design work. "We look forward to supplying the
enclosure, telescope structure and adaptive optics system in time for
first science," says Ray Carlberg of the University of Toronto, the
Canadian project director for ACURA, an association of 24 Canadian
universities in partnership with the National Research Council of
Canada.
The design and development phase of the TMT project has a budget of $64
million, including $35 million in private sector contributions from the
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. The conceptual design review board
found that the project is estimating the cost of the TMT using
up-to-date industry standards. A formal cost review of the project is
scheduled for September 2006.
The TMT project is studying five sites in Chile, Hawaii, and Mexico as
possible locations for the telescope. The project office is currently
based in Pasadena, CA, where the conceptual design review was held.
Edward Stone, chair of the TMT Board of Directors and former director
of
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is available to answer media
questions
about the conceptual design review and the status of this exciting
project.
For more information on the project, see www.tmt.org.
The TMT is designed to meet the scientific goals of the Giant Segmented
Mirror Telescope concept, which was the highest-priority ground-based
project in the most recent astronomy decadal survey conducted by the
National Academy of Sciences, published in 2000.
Contacts:
Douglas Isbell National Optical Astronomy Observatory/AURA Phone: (520)
318-8214 E-mail: disbell@noao.edu
Robert Tindol California Institute of Technology Phone: (626) 395-3631
E-mail: tindol@caltech.edu
Tim Stephens University of California, Santa Cruz Phone: (831) 459-4352
Email: stephens@ucsc.edu
Ray Carlberg University of Toronto/ACURA Phone: (416) 978-2198 Email:
raymond.carlberg@utoronto.ca
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