Astronomy

The National Science Foundation has until September to decide on advancing the Thirty Meter Telescope to the final design stage. The TMT is competing against a telescope project in Chile for limited NSF funding.

Solar winds, magnetic fields and coronal mass ejections — how hot are they? Such is the world of Shadia Habbal from the University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy. She is en route to Arkansas for the best viewing of the total solar eclipse on April 8.

Funding for the Thirty Meter Telescope may be in jeopardy following a decision by the National Science Foundation board to place a $1.6 billion budget cap on giant telescope projects.

John De Fries, the former president and CEO of the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority, was chosen from a pool of nine candidates as the new executive director of the Maunakea Stewardship and Oversight Authority. He will help guide a critical transition period as the authority takes over the management of Maunakea from the University of Hawaiʻi. HPR's Kuʻuwehi Hiraishi has more.

With our planet experiencing historically hot temperatures in recent years, the idea is becoming more and more plausible. Istvan Szapudi from the University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy published an article last summer about his idea for a sun shield.

Caltech has already removed the Leighton Telescope out of its observatory and off the mountain. Work will resume in the spring, weather permitting.

Keck Observatory on Hawaiʻi Island recently named Rich Matsuda as its next director. The self-proclaimed local boy spoke with The Conversation's Russell Subiono about dispelling the science versus culture mindset and building relationships with the community.

A UH professor shares his efforts to update outdated agricultural maps using satellites and AI; Keck Observatory's new director talks about balancing science and culture; a Maui filmmaker discusses his new streaming series, "Moku Moku"; and local musician Stephen Inglis shares why he's reviving an iconic Grateful Dead concert here in the islands

Maunakea, especially its summit, is sacred to Native Hawaiians as it contains ceremonial platforms, ancestral burial sites and an alpine lake believed to possess healing powers. But over the last 50 years, the summit has been used by astronomers to study the skies.

It's been a year since the Maunakea Stewardship and Oversight Authority was created by Act 255, which transfers responsibility for the Big Island volcano from the University of Hawaiʻi to the panel in five years. But there's a separate university advisory panel of Maunakea raising concerns about co-managing the mountain while the new governing board starts.