![]() ![]() TMT’s capabilities for high angular resolution imaging and ultra-deep spectroscopy will provide unprecedented opportunities to advance numerous areas of SMBH science.įormation of stars is the principal driver of galaxy evolution and chemical enrichment in the Universe, which in turn affects the process of star birth. Understanding the formation and growth history of SMBHs, their influence on galaxy evolution, and the exotic phenomena of stellar dynamics and gas accretion in the SMBH environment has become a major theme in astronomy. These discoveries over the past 20 years have led to the popular idea that black holes and galaxies co-evolve and that feedback of active galactic nuclei (AGN) during the growth phases of the black hole strongly affects the gas content and star formation in the host galaxy. Mass of the black hole (BH) is correlated with the stellar mass (M BH-M bulge relation) and velocity dispersion (M BH-σ relation) of the bulge of the galaxy. Masses, are now known to be present in the centers of most and perhaps all large galaxies. Supermassive black holes (SMBHs), with masses ranging from below 10 6 to above 10 10 solar These science teams created the 2015 Detailed Science Case and they continue to provide valuable guidance and input that helps to direct the observatory design and scientific priorities. A set of dedicated international science developement teams has been established to formulate and oversee activities related to each science goal. ![]() Exoplanet discovery observations that push into the terrestrial-planet regimeįurthermore, as has been the case for every previous increase in capability of this magnitude, it is very likely that the scientific impact of TMT will go far beyond what we envision today and TMT will enable discoveries that we cannot anticipate.Ī full list of the TMT science goals is listed below.Exploration of planet-formation processes and the characterization of extra-solar planets.Investigations of massive black holes throughout cosmic time.Exploration of galaxies and large-scale structure in the young universe, including the era in which most of the stars and heavy elements were formed and the galaxies in today’s universe were first assembled.Spectroscopic exploration of the “dark ages” when the first sources of light and the first heavy elements in the universe formed.The Thirty Meter Telescope will be the amongst the largest ground-based observatories in the world and will provide new observational opportunities in essentially every field of astronomy and astrophysics. Astronomers will pursue further advancement of our inderstanding in several key science areas, including: ![]() In the first decade of the 21st Century, international partners from around the world envisioned the one of the largest telescopes to be built - the Thirty Meter Telescope. ![]() Nowadays, no single university or country, has the technological resources to build the facilities required to answer key questions about the structure and evolution of the universe and the enigmatic processes, environments and bodies that pervade the cosmos. As our level of knowledge grows, the next level of questions that arise require facilities with even greater capabilities to gather the observations needed to answer them. In the last 2000 years, human understanding of the universe has leapt forward incrementally with each new technology. India’s in-kind contributions towards the project include Hardware (Segment Support Assemblies, Actuators, Edge Sensors, Segment Polishing and Segment Coating), Instrumentation (First Light Instruments) and Software (Observatory Software and Telescope Control Systems).Astronomy is arguably the oldest of the sciences. India is a Founder-Member country for this project at about 10% level. TMT is an international project which aims at building a 30-metre diameter telescope at Mauna Kea, Hawaii, USA at an estimated cost of 1.47 billion USD (Base year 2012 USD) involving an international consortium of scientific organizations and institutions in Canada, China, India, Japan and USA. To maintain this exciting pace of discovery, astronomers and engineers are pushing the boundaries of today’s technology while simultaneously creating the innovations that will make the upcoming Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) one of the world’s most advanced and capable ground-based optical and infrared observatory. Telescopes built till today have led to many fascinating and intriguing discoveries in astronomy, like the discovery of planets around other stars, evidence of accelerating expansion of the universe, existence of dark matter and dark energy, monitoring of asteroids/comets that could pose a serious threat to the inhabitants of the Earth. Our view of the universe was largely constrained to the unaided vision of our eyes before Galileo Galilei first adapted a telescope to look at the skies over four hundred years ago. ![]()
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