Caltech observatory atop Hawaii’s Mauna Kea, a source of cultural tension, is dismantled

Caltech and its contractors completed the decommissioning of the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory in July. After decades of mounting tension between scientists and Native Hawaiians, Caltech has completed its removal of a telescope from the summit of Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano that is revered by the island’s Indigenous population. The decommissioning of the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory in July follows the removal of a University of Hawaii observatory a month earlier, and comes amid a cultural resurgence among Native Hawaiians. “If this authority can begin to pioneer a new model of leadership, that’s reason to be grateful, but the task of that remains ahead of us.” The Caltech Submillimeter Observatory’s telescope will now move to Chile. Since the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory started looking at the night sky in 1987, the telescope has played a key role in several scientific breakthroughs.