Science and religion fight over Hawaii's highest point

August 28, 2015 02:42

Rising more than 6 miles from the seabed floor, Mauna Kea is the tallest summit in the world.

To native Hawaiians, the dormant volcano is the most sacred land in the entire Pacific. It is the point where the sky and earth meet. They believe it is the site of the genesis of their people, and it is the burial ground for their most revered ancestors. Considered a temple and a house of worship, native Hawaiians believed the gods created Mauna Kea for them to ascend to the heavens.

To scientists, the mountaintop is the best location in the world to observe the stars and study the origins of our universe.

"The summit of Mauna Kea may, in fact, be the darkest site anywhere in the world ... which of course means you can see deeper into space," said Doug Simons, executive director at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. The CFHT sits with 12 other telescopes on top of the mountain.

Inspired by the images being captured from the summit, a group of astronomers wants to build the world's most sophisticated telescope at the top of Mauna Kea. It's called the Thirty Meter Telescope, or TMT for short, because the primary mirror of the telescope is 30 meters across. (In comparison, the famed Hubble telescope is 2.4 meters in diameter). The price for the TMT is $1.4 billion.

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