Funding for new telescope ‘really good news’ for Canadian astronomers
An artist's rendering of the Thirty Metre Telescope, as it would appear in Hawaii.
The Canadian government has approved its share of funding for a massive telescope that will allow astronomers to study objects in our own solar system as well as in neighbouring galaxies.
The Thirty Metre Telescope will be placed on the summit of Mauna Kea, in Hawaii, and is expected to be ready for use in 2024.
“This is really good news,” Christine Wilson, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and president of the Canadian Astronomical Society, told Inside Belleville recently. “We as a (astronomical) community and a country have been involved in the design and have already invested $30 million,” she said.
“It’s really critically important for Canadian astronomers, this announcement. Our astronomy community’s research expertise is among the best in the world. Astronomy is one of the strongest sciences in Canada,” she said.
According to the Globe and Mail newspaper, the telescope’s primary mirror will be wider than an NHL ice rink. When pointed skyward, it will collect about 18 million times as much light from distant stars as the human eye.
The images the telescope produces will be clearer than those of the Hubble Telescope, which uses a mirror just 2.4 metres wide.
