Canada's partnership in world's largest telescope in jeopardy

The largest eye ever to open on the Universe is about to be built and Canada could be locked out of its historical views.

The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) is an ambitious $1.4 billion project to build an optical instrument that is three times larger than today’s largest observatory. It will have views that will be 10- to 100-times better than anything we have today – even outdoing the venerable Hubble Space Telescope. Its incredible power will allow us to be able to see the feeble light from the first stars born in the Universe, and directly image exoplanets.

The ground has been broken on the project near the summit of Hawaii’s Mauna Kea, which involves international partners including Japan, the United States, China and Canada.

Canada had agreed to put $300 million into the project, and now the time has come to hand over the funds to help continue construction. However, the federal government appears to be silent – and time is quickly running out.

Canada only has a about the tenth the population of the United States and spends a fraction on astronomy. Canada’s spending is estimated to be about $30 million a year, compared to the United States, which spends about $ 2 billion.

Yet despite this and the economic belt-tightening throughout Canada, our astronomers still manage to conduct stellar science and are involved in some of the biggest cosmic discoveries of our time.

From getting the sharpest maps of the Cosmic Microwave Background – the remnants of the Big Bang – that has allowed us to pin down our best estimate for the current age of the universe, to actually snagging humanity’s first direct visual snapshots of alien planets circling distant stars, Canada has been involved.

“When you live in a neighbourhood where the incomes are low and the rents are high, innovation is the name of the game, says Jaymie Matthews, lead scientist on the highly successful Canadian space telescope mission MOST. He believes that Canadian astronomers have seen so much success because they are innovators.

“Why have Canadian astronomers been so innovative for so long? Maybe necessity?” said Matthews, who is also an astronomer at University of British Columbia in Victoria.

“A Canadian astronomer with little resources finds ways to make her dreams into realities that can really change our perspectives on the universe.”

In many ways, the MOST space telescope is the poster child of innovative big science on a shoestring budget. The telescope, launched in 2003, is still functioning today. It was the first to be designed and constructed by Canadians. It has studied over 5,000 stars and has confirmed the existence of exoplanets, resulting in over 100 published scientific papers. And amazingly, it initially cost just $10 million and is only the size of a suitcase.

At this point, there appears to be pressure being put on Canada to figure out a way to come through with the funding. However, in the coming months the international team behind one of the biggest science projects in history will have to continue with or without Canada.

“Canadian astronomers are anxious that our government has been dragging its heels,” Matthews said. “Our international partners have been patient, but their patience is running thin.”

If the Harper government does not come through with Canada’s share in funding the TMT project, we will lose all the benefits and allotted time with the completed telescope Canadian astronomers would otherwise have been guaranteed.

“We would be looking in from the outside while astronomers elsewhere in the world are looking up with the largest telescope in the history of optical astronomy,” Matthews said.

“Canadian astronomers would be relegated to the fringes of some major advances in cosmology, while Canadian engineers would be denied the opportunity to demonstrate their prowess in the design and construction of the telescope, enclosure and instruments. Not to mention that Canadian companies will also lose big contracts for which they are currently the front-runners.”

And while the promise of discoveries that TMT is offering the next generation of astronomers is amazing, we run the risk of not only losing this unique opportunity but also keeping the top minds in Canada.

“Canada started on the ground floor and has the potential to rise to the top,” Matthews said. “We risk our ability to keep our brightest home-grown young minds in Canada. We would end up being on the outside looking in, seeing the ‘Sold’ sign in front of the most desirable listings in the research neighbourhood.

“And so we’ll be telling ourselves – and our students – that could have been our timeshare.”