Mauna Kea Research Paper

Mauna Kea is a volcano that is dormant that is located on the Big Island of Hawai’i and its name means “White Mountain”. Mauna Kea is known for having the world’s largest astronomical observatory. Currently there are thirteen telescopes that are located near the summit of Mauna Kea, nine of the telescopes are for optical and infrared astronomy, three of them are for submilllimeter wavelength astronomy and one is for radio astronomy. Mauna Kea is a unique site for astronomy because of the atmosphere above the mountain is extremely dry which is great from measuring infrared and submilllimeter radiation. The University of Hawaii has a lease from the State of Hawaii for the land that is within a certain radius of the UH 2.2-m Telescope. (University of Hawaii Institute of Astronomy, n.d.) Some of the native Hawaiians are trying to stop the county workers from building the Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea because …show more content…
On the Hawaii News there had been interviews that have been done by Native Hawaiians claiming that the land on Mauna Kea was their land. Also, the protesters have been getting arrested for interfering and blocking the road to summit. Some of the Native Hawaiians that are protesting have children and bring the children to protest. Some of the people protesting may not be as informed about what is happening with the protest and just want to be apart of it even though they have no clue what they are protesting about. There will be many benefits to Hawaii when the Thirty Meter telescope is built and this project has been in the planning process for years. The Thirty Meter Telescope project had an almost seven year planning and permitting process which had public hearing and input from the community. Even if there were protests nothing would stop the University of Hawaii from not building the Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna