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State conservation enforcement officers are investigating the destruction of four endangered Hawaiian vines in the Mauna Loa Forest Reserve near Puu Huluhulu, the site where protesters have been blocking Mauna Kea Access Road for the last two months. Additionally, officials with the Department of Land and Natural Resources said Thursday there’s evidence other rare plants in the area have been trampled. “Intentional or not, this damage is happening and it’s very concerning,” DLNR Chairwoman Suzanne Case said. “There’s really just no way to have hundreds of people every day, often thousands, in sensitive natural areas like Puu Huluhulu and the...

MAUNA KEA, Hawaii —On Wednesday, hundreds of protesters forced construction crews for the Thirty Meter Telescope to come to a halt, but it didn’t come without sacrifice.In total, 12 people were arrested for obstructing the path, but after a six-hour attempt to make it to the top of the summit, TMT crews only reached about a mile and a half up from hale pohaku before turning back. It’s been a long haul for those for and against building what will be one of the world's largest telescopes on land held sacred by many Native Hawaiians, a divided image that has...

In June 2003, the nonprofit Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) Observatory Corporation was founded by a collaboration of organizations: the Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy, the University of California, and the California Institute of Technology.

The massive Thirty Meter Telescope will be able to image objects 13 billion light years away, near the beginning of time. Set atop Mauna Kea, the Thirty Meter Telescope will be able to observe planets outside our solar system. (Credit: Courtesy TMT Observatory Corporation) If you love eye-popping images of space, here's welcome news: the Hawaiian Board of Land and Natural Resources has backed building what's to be the world's largest, most powerful optical telescope above the clouds atop the volcano Mauna Kea. The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) will have a primary mirror of 492 segments measuring some 100 feet...

A new generation of ground-based telescopes could be up to 10 times the size of existing instruments and have vision 40 times as sharp as the Hubble space telescope.Astronomers have been hailing the plans, as a European project to build an Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) enters a design testing phase. An ELT is vital if the pace of astronomical breakthroughs is to continue, say experts. The plans were outlined at the UK National Astronomy Meeting in Birmingham. Concepts for ELTs include the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) being considered by the US and Canada; and the Euro50 and Overwhelmingly Large Telescope...