Mount Ekea - The Home of Pouli Ahu

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Vaihi Hirayishi: Mount Ekea is thought of as a sacred place by native Hawaiians. In the 1960s, astronomy in the proposal for building a telescope really appealed to those at the time. There was no process or opportunity I'd say in terms of environmental oversight that the state would offer," she says.

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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