The ThirtyMeter Telescope

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The Thirty-Meter Telescope

• CoDR report and implications
• for Australian ELT aspirations

Charles Jenkins Deputy Australian ELT Project
Scientist
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Outline

• What is the TMT project?
• How is the project organized?
• What are the science drivers?
• How will they be met?
• Could Australia join?
• Should Australia join?

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Happy families are all alike every unhappy
family is unhappy in its own way Tolstoy, Anna
Karenina
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Acknowledgement

• Many of the slides I will show are borrowed from
  TMT presentations by Gary Sanders and Paul Hickson

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2001 National Research CouncilDecadal Survey of
Astronomy

• The Giant Segmented Mirror Telescope (GSMT),
  the committees top ground-based recommendation
  and second priority overall, is a 30-m-class
  ground-based telescope that will be a powerful
  complement to NGST in tracing the evolution of
  galaxies and the formation of stars and planets.
  It will have unique capabilities in studying the
  evolution of the intergalactic medium and the
  history of star formation in our galaxy and its
  nearest neighbors. GSMT will use adaptive optics
  to achieve diffraction limited imaging in the
  atmospheric windows between 1 and 25 mm and
  unprecedented light-gathering power between 0.3
  and 1 mm. The committee recommends that the
  technology development for GSMT begin immediately
  and that construction start within the decade.
  Half the total cost should come from private
  and/or international partners. Open access to
  GSMT by the U.S. astronomical community should be
  directly proportional to the investment by the
  NSF.

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Precursor Studies to TMT

• Several US organizations developed concepts for a
  30 meter GSMT, including

AURA New Initiatives Office Partnership of NOAO
and Gemini
CELTCO Partnership of Caltech and UC
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Precursor Studies to TMT

• Canadian study developed concept for 20 meter
  telescope to replace CFHT

VLOT Partnership of HIA and ACURA
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Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) Studies

• In 2002, 5 major studies were underway around the
  world
• 20 meter Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT)
  Carnegie/Arizona array of cast 8 meter mirrors
• 20 meter Canadian Very Large Optical Telescope
  (VLOT) ACURA - segmented mirror
• 30 meter California Extremely Large Telescope
  (CELT) Caltech and UC - segmented mirror
• 30 meter Giant Segmented Mirror Telescope (GSMT)
  NOAO/AURA - segmented mirror
• 50 meter Euro 50 segmented mirror
• 100 meter OverWhelmingly Large telescope (OWL)
  ESO segmented mirror
• In 2006, 3 major studies are underway
• GMT array of cast 8 meter mirrors
• TMT (merger of VLOT, CELT, GSMT) - segmented
• EELT (30 60 meter ESO revised study)
  segmented (?)

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Decadal Survey Vision

• TMT responds to the NAS Decadal Survey
  recommendation that a public-private partnership
  is the best way to build and operate a US-led
  30-m telescope, the 1st priority large
  ground-based project
• TMT has the goal of a 50-50 public-private
  partnership
• Current partners are
• UC
• Caltech
• ACURA (Canada)
• AURA (NSF) - This brings in all NSF funded
  astronomers as ultimately eligible to observe at
  TMT

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Design and Development Phase (DDP) (2004-2008)

• 35M secured from Gordon Betty Moore Foundation
  (Caltech/UC)
• 17.5M secured from Canada
• Sources are CFI, Ontario, and NRC
• AURA funding is being provided by NSF
• AURA New Initiatives Office currently supporting
  TMT design and development
• First award of new NSF funds started in 2005
• Ultimate level of NSF award not fixed
• DDP is being carried out with a 64 million
  budget through 2008

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Single TMT Reference Design

• 30m filled aperture, highly segmented
• Aplanatic Gregorian (AG) two mirror telescope
• f/1 primary
• f/15 final focus
• Field of view 20 arcmin
• Elevation axis in front of the primary
• Wavelength coverage 0.31 28 µm
• Operational zenith angle range 1 thru 65
• Conventional and adaptive secondary mirrors to be
  interchanged
• No telescope baffles
• AO system requirements and architecture defined
• First generation instrument requirements defined

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TMT Calotte Enclosure
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Site Selection Campaign

• Satellite studies identify a small number of
  candidate sites
• Sites in Chile, Mexico and Hawaii under study
• Mauna Kea
• San Pedro Martir, Baja Mexico
• 4 sites in Chile
• Selection to be made in 2007 2008 by an open
  site competition of qualified sites
• Scientific site quality
• Programmatic factors (costs, labor, geotechnical,
  environmental)
• Currently collecting data on 5 sites in Chile,
  Mexico, Hawaii

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Quimal 4280m
T3
T2
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San Pedro Martir 2830m
T3
T2
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Design Development Phase Major Milestones
Reference Schedule

• DDP CoDR May 2006
• DDP Cost Review September 2006
• Possible Construction Proposals to Private/Canada
  sponsors Q4CY2006
• Site Selection/Qualification Report July 2007
• DDP PDR/Construction Proposal Review September
  2007
• Site Announcement of Opportunity October 2007
• Full Construction/MRE proposal submitted Q4CY2007
• Site Proposals Received Q3CY2008 (July 1)
• NSF selects an ELT project as partner in Q3CY2008
• Site Selected Q4CY2008
• DDP ends - Q4CY2008
• Construction initiated Q1CY2009

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Major Construction Phase Milestones Reference
Schedule

• Construction initiated Q1CY2009
• Site Specific Designs/Site Mobilization Q4CY2008
• Site facilities/enclosure accepted Q2CY2012
• Early Operations funds support facilities after
  acceptance
• Initial instrument installed Q1CY2014
• Additional First Light Instruments delivered
  CY2014
• Integration during early operations
• First Light, all segments phased Q2CY2014
• Construction phase completed
• First science, initial instrument Q1CY2015
• Operations support tapers up Q2CY2012 Q3CY2014

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Fundamental Questions in 2015

• What is the nature of dark matter and dark
  energy?
• What were the first luminous objects in the
  Universe and when did they appear?
• When and how did the the intergalactic medium
  become ionized?
• When and how did the most massive compact objects
  form?
• How did the galaxies form and how do they evolve?
• When and where were the heavy elements produced?
• How do stars and planetary systems form?
• What are the physical properties of exoplanets?
• Does life exist elsewhere in the Universe?

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TMT Key Science Areas

• Cosmology and fundamental physics
• The early universe and first light
• Intergalactic medium beyond z 7
• Galaxy formation and evolution
• Black holes and active galactic nuclei
• Stellar populations and star-formation histories
  in the local Universe
• Evolution of star clusters and the IMF
• Physics of star and planet formation
• Characterization of extrasolar planets
• Solar System studies

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TMT Aperture Advantage

• For seeing-limited observations and observations
  of resolved sources
• For background-limited observations of unresolved
  sources in the IR
• For high-contrast observations of unresolved
  sources
• For ExAO high-contrast observations of unresolved
  sources

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Exploiting TMTs Aperture Advantage
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Characterization of Extrasolar Planets - Direct
detection

• TMT will directly image young planets near
  low-mass stars using high-order adaptive optics
  (ExAO)
• Arguably the most technically challenging (and
  rewarding) of all the TMT technologies

4 MJ planet orbiting a brown dwarf
80 MJ planet orbiting an old K star
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Characterizing Extrasolar Planets- Extreme
adaptive optics

• TMTs large aperture will allow detection of
  planets closer to their host stars
• Detection of planets by reflected light.
• Probe scales comparable to inner Solar System.
• Detect planets forming in circumstellar disks.

TMT PFI team
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TMT Science Instrument Summary
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Issue Size of seeing-limited instruments!

• WFOS
• 8m diam x 12m high
• Size of an 8m telescope!
• HROS classic
• 12m x 16m
• 3m off-axis parabolic collimators
• 1.3m camera lenses
• Huge echelle
• 5x8 mosaic of gratings
• 1m x 3.5m

WFOS
Deimos
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Are the Science Requirementsrobust over the next
decade?

• The science cases and requirements represent
  science that requires
• Diffraction limited performance in narrow and
  wider fields
• High contrast AO and telescope performance
• Wide field of view (FOV) seeing-limited science
  including the UV
• Good mid-infrared capability in the entire system
• Even if the science cases evolve as astronomy
  progresses, TMT science and technical
  requirements that can meet the broad cases above
  should provide a robust science capability

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Could Australia join TMT?

• Yes, as an instrumental affiliate (project is
  comfortable with its present members for design
  construction of the telescope, but instruments
  are a problem).
• This means finding 30-50M U.S. and a slot in the
  instrument suite that isnt taken
• Nights in exchange
• After this, could become a full partner if
  contributed to operations costs (20M U.S. per
  annum)

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What we could have had in TMT
Opportunities Canada is currently involved in
several aspects of the project including the
definition of the science case and requirements,
design of the telescope and enclosure structures,
design of the instrumentation and adaptive optics
systems, development of reflective coatings, site
testing, detailed modeling of the performance of
the telescope and adaptive optics systems, site
testing on Mauna Kea (Hawaii), and the
development of the observatory software
architecture.
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Should Australia join TMT?

• This question has to be relative to the only
  other choice, the GMT
• Relevant comparative questions are
• Fit with science
• Likelihood of US partners raising the
• Likelihood of raising the in Australia
• Opportunities for Australia in the design phase
• Technical risk
• Governance
• My opinion the differences between the projects
  are small compared to the unknowns EXCEPT
• we have missed the boat for TMT on terms we
  might be able to sell inside Australia.