Abstract: | The TMT Detailed Science Case describes the transformational science that the
Thirty Meter Telescope will enable. Planned to begin science operations in
2024, TMT will open up opportunities for revolutionary discoveries in
essentially every field of astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology, seeing much
fainter objects much more clearly than existing telescopes. Per this
capability, TMT’s science agenda fills all of space and time, from nearby
comets and asteroids, to exoplanets, to the most distant galaxies, and all the
way back to the very first sources of light in the Universe.
More than 150 astronomers from within the TMT partnership and beyond offered
input in compiling the new 2015 Detailed Science Case. The contributing
astronomers represent the entire TMT partnership, including the California
Institute of Technology (Caltech), the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA),
the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
(NAOC), the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), the University
of California, the Association of Canadian Universities for Research in
Astronomy (ACURA) and US associate partner, the Association of Universities for
Research in Astronomy (AURA). |