Four decades have passed since, high up in the palm summits, the starting gun was fired for first-rate scientific activity. This work has made the Isla Bonita renowned worldwide: in 1985, the then-Kings of Spain, Juan Carlos I and Sofía, inaugurated the facilities of the Observatory of the Roque de los Muchachos, which today stands as one of the most privileged places on the planet for stargazing.
Last week, to mark the anniversary, the Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities, Diana Morant, who chaired the Governing Council of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, dropped a bombshell: she announced that the Spanish Government is prepared to invest €400 million in the Thirty Metre Telescope (TMT), an infrastructure that aims to be the most powerful and advanced ever built, with its location debated between Hawaii and La Palma.
However, talking about the TMT involves discussing a long-distance race; a story with many facets that has experienced issues on both sides of the pond. From the opposition of the Hawaiian native community, who believe it aims to be located on a sacred mountain, to the obstacles set up by a Canarian environmental group that embarked on a lengthy legal battle against its possible location in a parcel of the Pinar de las Ánimas and Juanianes, in the municipality of Puntagorda on La Palma.
RACE SINCE 2003
The TMT is promoted by an international consortium composed of private institutions from the United States and the governments of China, Canada, India, and Japan, partners who, from the outset, had bet on the mountain of Mauna Kea in the Pacific island as the preferred site, with La Palma as ‘Plan B’. This positioning stems from the fact that Canadians and Japanese have other observation instruments located on this mountain: the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope and the Subaru telescopes. However, having set their sights on that exact geographical point has posed a headache they’ve been dealing with practically since the founding of the promoting group in 2003.
In the 1960s, the United States authorities reached an agreement with the kia’i or native Hawaiian groups to install several telescopes on Mauna Kea, at an altitude of 4,205 metres, which came to professionalise an observation of the cosmos that was already inherent to local culture. Since then, as one of the most prominent kupuna or elders, Noe Noe Wong-Wilson, declared to DIARIO DE AVISOS, the arrival of shovels and workers for the construction of more infrastructures in what they consider a sacred mountain ensued. That is why now, with the TMT project in mind, they decided to stage a sit-in at the Observatory’s access, believing that the initial usage quota of the land had been exceeded.
The most mass protest occurred in 2019, with the participation of Jason Momoa, the actor who starred in the film Aquaman. However, it is true that opponents of the TMT’s location on Mauna Kea have also gathered in other significant places, such as the Hawaiian Capitol, where supporters congregated, including the invaluable backing of Democratic Senator Amy Perruso, who presented a legislative proposal aimed at ending the project’s ambitions in Hawaii.
‘PANDEMIC HALT’
In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic changed everything. Delays caused by protests were compounded by a reduction in publicly available resources for investment in science. Japan’s damning announcement that it was freezing the funds it had promised to allocate to the TMT prompted consortium member countries to completely reassess their positions: India suggested that if the opponents’ battle in the Pacific continued, it would make sense to bet on La Palma. A shift that, however, the Japanese ignored.
The underlying debate was about the project’s viability, as even the estimated $1.2 billion cost of the telescope wasn’t guaranteed, and price increases in the construction sector were anticipated. This is where the avenue of Uncle Sam emerged: the consortium began seeking investment from the federal government of the United States, then under Joe Biden, to inject capital. However, this situation would not materialise without the approval of the National Science Foundation (NSF), which was already studying projects for inclusion in the so-called decadal survey, a document that establishes American scientific investment priorities every ten years.
In November 2021, a miracle happened, and the NSF considered the package called US-ELT, which includes the Thirty Metre Telescope in the northern hemisphere and the Giant Magellan Telescope (Chile) in the southern hemisphere, as its big bet for observing the universe from Earth, proposing an investment of $800 million. This news came as manna from heaven to the TMT promoters but also brought a surprise: the American scientific report placed the natural conditions of La Palma and Hawaii on the same level for housing the instrument, partially demolishing the arguments Japan had defended until that point.
The former director of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias at the time, Rafael Rebolo, expressed, in statements to this newspaper, that the NSF’s ruling awakened “moderate optimism” and showed he was “reassured” because it supported the thesis that the capabilities of the Isla Bonita “are favourable for the telescope”. He also extended a hand to the consortium and American authorities to work on the La Palma alternative.
THE MOST BEAUTIFUL
In La Palma, the context is radically different from the problems experienced in Hawaii. According to a survey commissioned by the consortium, which was exclusively revealed to DIARIO by former TMT Operations Director Christophe Dumas, it was confirmed that the infrastructure has 94% support from Canarians, compared to growing discontent in the Pacific island. However, the La Palma obstacle would be led by an environmental group, Ben Magec, which launched a legal battle to overturn the transfer of public land to the promoting group.
The green group achieved a victory in August 2021 before the Administrative Court number 2 of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, with a ruling that referred to bureaucratic considerations, but not environmental ones. This ruling was appealed by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias and the Cabildo of La Palma before the High Court of Justice of the Autonomous Community (TSJC), which ruled in favour of the scientific project in September 2022.
As things stood, the complainant entity presented a cassation appeal. In April 2023, the Supreme Court officially concluded the dispute, in line with the statements made by Canarian and La Palma authorities, citing a “lack of sufficient grounds” in the environmental complaints. Thus, given that the TMT had -and has- all the necessary permits for its installation on the Island since November 2019, La Palma became a solid alternative.
TRUMP VS. MORANT
While the consortium, during this hiatus initiated by the pandemic, has worked alongside the kia’i in a negotiated solution to establish the TMT on Mauna Kea -even including members of the native community on the Observatory’s Governing Board- the change in leadership in the White House would play against them. The new American president, Donald Trump, aimed to shift direction on numerous policies initiated by his predecessor, the Democrat Joe Biden, including investment in science.
Thus, the NSF conveyed its draft budget to the American Congress last June, in which any contribution from Washington to the TMT was suspended, benefiting -it must be said- the Giant Magellan Telescope. This news came as a cold shower for the consortium, but Spain, the Canary Islands, and La Palma saw it as an opportunity.
In this manner, against the backdrop of the 40th anniversary of the Observatory of the Roque de los Muchachos, the Spanish Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities, Diana Morant, announced on Wednesday that through the Centre for Technological Development and Innovation (CDTI), the Government would inject €400 million into the project, which, in all likelihood, exponentially increases the chances that La Palma will ultimately host the most powerful and advanced telescope ever proposed in the northern hemisphere.
Moreover, such financial support would mean that Spain transitions from being Plan B to a strategically important partner, in line with the positions advocated by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, the regional government, and the president of La Palma, Sergio Rodríguez, who thanked the Ministry for “strongly betting on making this possibility a reality.”
After 22 years of the project’s journey, it is only at this moment that La Palma, which has the darkest sky -and therefore, the most favourable for astrophysical observation- in the world according to The Astronomical Journal, has prospects of sitting at the same table as China, Japan, Canada, and India and defending, with solid arguments in hand, that it is undoubtedly the only option to accommodate the installation of the Thirty Metre Telescope.
