A telescope ‘disappears’ in Hawaii without a trace on its way to Chile

4 Jul. () –

The final components of the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO) – foundation, geodesic dome, and buildings – have been removed from the summit of Maunakea in Hawaii, and the land has been restored.

This officially concludes the physical dismantling of the CSO, a process that began in 2015 and began in earnest in 2022 in accordance with the State of Hawaii’s 2010 Decommissioning Plan for the Maunakea Observatories.

Over the next three years, the site will be monitored to document passive natural repopulation by the summit flora and fauna and the results will be reported, Caltech reportedwho published a video of the final disassembly.

The CSO, which operated between 1987 and 2015opened a new window for studying submillimeter wavelengths of light, which lie between infrared and radio on the electromagnetic spectrum. Its discoveries spanned a wide range of objects, including comets, planet-forming disks around stars, distant galaxies, and more. New detection technologies were also used at the CSO, and those technologies went on to play key roles in space- and ground-based observatories.

The CSO telescope is currently packed in shipping containers at a port on the island of Hawaii, where a new purpose awaits in Chile: the Leighton Chajnantor Telescope. The name honors both the telescope’s inventor, the late Caltech professor Robert B. Leighton, and the planned site for the observatory on the high plateau of Chajnantor.

The reincarnated telescope will make real-time observations of cosmic flares, which have remained largely unexplored at submillimeter wavelengths, and will continue to observe planetary and stellar nurseries, as well as the most distant galaxies. The telescope components will be shipped to Chile for assembly next year, and the first observations are expected to be made in 2027.