Worlds largest Optical Telescope to be developed by Five-Nation Consortium

A five-nation consortium including India would be constructing the world’s largest optical telescope, which would be the world’s most advanced ground based observatory. This telescope will be developed in Hawaii at the summit of the Mauna Kea Volcano.  Thirty Metre Telescope (TMT) governing body on 22 January 2013 met to decide the contributions to be made by the member nations namely, India, Japan, Canada, China and the US in the development of world’s largest optical telescope. The work on this telescope is expected to start in 2014 and the project is planned at an investment of 1.2 billion US dollar. This Thirty Meter Telescope would be eighty one times more sensitive than all the telescopes of its kind available at present. The Indian scientists would play a major role in the development of the key components of the telescope and 15 percent of the 492 mirror segments, each of 1.44 m in size, would be fabricated in India.