Maunakea

Mauna Kea's Summit Area

Maunakea

At 13,796ft in the air, you are above 40% of the atmosphere and 90% of its water vapor – apparently perfect conditions for growing the giant mushroom-like…

Lake Waiʻau

Maunakea

On an island with a conspicuous dearth of surface water, tiny Lake Waiʻau's existence on a porous lava mountain is something of an enigma. Hawaiian…

WM Keck Observatory

Maunakea

Mirrors larger than 26.2ft are so heavy that gravity distorts them as they move. Keck's breakthrough design overcame that limitation in 1993 by using a…

Mauna Kea Adz Quarry

Maunakea

Quarries scattered over 7.5 sq miles produced tons of exceptionally dense and fine-grained basalt (dubbed Hawaiʻiite) used to make a tool similar to an ax…

Subaru Telescope

Maunakea

When it came online in 1999, Japan's 26.9ft Subaru Telescope was the most expensive observatory ever constructed. The 22-ton mirror is one of the largest…

Thirty Meter Telescope (planned)

Maunakea

Walk behind the Keck Twins and look northwest and you'll see...nothing. Down there is the ideal location for the TMT, which supersizes Keck's many-small…

Submillimeter Array

Maunakea

These eight 19.7ft radio telescopes work together (via supercomputer) to create image resolutions equal to an antenna 0.3 miles in diameter. The SMA…

United Kingdom Infrared Telescope

Maunakea

Even though this 3.8m (12.5ft) telescope is the second-largest dedicated infrared telescope in the world, it will soon be decommissioned according to the…