Moore for Giant Telescope
DOI: 10.1063/1.4796917
Plans for a 30-meter telescope (TMT) got a boost in late September, when the San Francisco-based Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation pledged $17.5 million for the project. The gift makes up Caltech’s contribution to initial TMT planning; the University of California is trying to raise the same amount, and the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy plans to pitch in $35 million (see Physics Today, August 2003, page 22 ). The total construction cost is expected to be around $700 million.
“We hope this gift will leverage funding from the University of California, the National Science Foundation, and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation,” says Richard Ellis, a Caltech astronomer and leader in the drive to build a TMT. “There’s nothing like funding to move a project ahead.”
DOUG CUMMINGS/CALTECH
More about the authors
Toni Feder, tfeder@aip.org
