The Hawaii State Supreme Court has revoked the construction permit for the Thirty Meter Telescope that was set to be built atop Mauna Kea, the tallest mountain in Honolulu.
The telescope's construction is a $1.4 billion joint project between the California Institute of Technology and the University of California, with partners from China, India and Japan. The construction has been requested since April, but with Mauna Kea serving an important part of the heritage and culture of the natives, people protested against building the telescope, The New York Times reported.
"Quite simply, the board put the cart before the horse when it issued the permit before the request for a contested case hearing was resolved and the hearing was held. Accordingly, the permit cannot stand," the court's 58-page opinion said, according to NBC News.
The ruling favors the protesters, and the people behind TMT say that they respect the decision and are assessing options for moving forward.
While astronomers are able to use different locations in the world to conduct studies and discoveries, they share the belief that Mauna Kea is an important location. In fact, the 13 telescopes already mounted atop the mountain in question are all major contributors in a lot of significant astronomical discoveries.
"There is almost no major astronomical discovery where there was not very important input from the telescopes on Mauna Kea," said Guenther Hasinger, director of the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Hawaii, according to the Associated Press.
