TMT Science and Instruments

TL;DR

This paper discusses the design and instrumentation of the Thirty Meter Telescope, emphasizing the importance of achieving diffraction-limited performance for scientific goals and summarizing the system's preliminary design and scientific applications.

Contribution

It provides an overview of the TMT's design, instrumentation, and scientific objectives, highlighting progress towards system performance predictions.

Findings

Design emphasizes diffraction-limited performance from the start

Preliminary design phases nearing completion

Summarizes telescope and instrument capabilities

Abstract

To meet the scientific goals of the Thirty Meter Telescope Project, full diffraction-limited performance is required from the outset and hence the entire observatory is being designed, as a system, to achieve this. The preliminary design phases of the telescope and the first light adaptive optic facility are now approaching completion so that much better predictions of the system performance are possible. The telescope design and instrumentation are summarized in this presentation, with a brief description of some of the scientific programs that are foreseen.