The signing of the agreement on master partnership for the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT)--considered world’s largest ground based optical and infra-red telescope ever built - by five partner countries, Canada, China, India, Japan and the US, has cleared the decks for the participation of the Indian industries in this prestigious project expected to become operational by 2022. As per the agreement, India will be a 10% partner in this US$1.5-billion project.

  The “new technology” TMT telescope is essentially a segmented mirror telescope with its primary 30-m mirror made up of 492 hexagonal segments of 1.44 m each.

   According to researchers, the sheer size of the telescope will allow it to peer deeper into the cosmos and in the process help unravel many of the hitherto unknown aspects of the origin and evolution of the universe. Clearly and apparently, TMT will be able to see more clearly than....