Caltech’s Submillimeter Observatory has been removed from Mauna Kea (File Photo – caltech.edu)
The final components of the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO), including its foundation, silver geodesic dome, and on-site buildings, have been removed from a valley atop Mauna Kea in Hawai‘i, and the land at the site has been restored.
By News Desk
This officially concludes the physical decommissioning of CSO, a process that was initiated in 2015 and began in earnest in 2022 in accordance with the State of Hawai‘i’s 2010 Decommissioning Plan for the Mauna Kea Observatories.
For the next three years, the site will be monitored to document passive natural repopulation by summit flora and fauna and the results reported.
“The physical site decommissioning was undertaken with great care by our prime deconstruction contractor, with constant oversight by local cultural, archeological, environmental, and construction monitors as well as the Center for Mauna Kea Stewardship (CMS),” says Caltech physics professor and CSO Director Sunil Golwala.
CSO operated from 1987 to 2015. Currently, the telescope is packed in shipping containers in a harbor on the island of Hawai‘i, where it awaits a new purpose in Chile as the Leighton Chajnantor Telescope.
> The decommissioning of the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO) and the restoration of the site on Mauna Kea, Hawai’i was captured by a camera at Subaru Telescope, operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ):
Source: Caltech
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