Mount Ekea - The TMT 30 Meter Telescope

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Mount Ekea was selected as the primary site for what was going to be this next generation telescope, right? So 10 times as much light gathering power as the Subaru and 10 times more resolution than the Hubble. Later on in that process we began to see some pushback from environmentalists and also the Native Hawaiian community. This is sort of just another attempt to build scientific infrastructure without building consensus with indigenous community members.

Something strange is going on at the outer reaches of the solar system. One astronomer thinks it might be a Neptune-sized ninth planet, and he’s on a quest to find it.

That search is happening at an enormous telescope on the summit of Maunakea, a dormant Hawaiian volcano with a long astronomical and cultural history. But many Native Hawaiian scientists are asking: What’s lost in the pursuit of larger and larger telescopes?

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