Location
In cooperation with AURA, the TMT project completed a multi-year evaluation of five sites:
- Cerro Armazones, Antofagasta Region, Republic of Chile
- Cerro Tolanchar, Antofagasta Region, Republic of Chile
- Cerro Tolar, Antofagasta Region, Republic of Chile
- Mauna Kea, Hawaiʻi, United States (preferred site)
- San Pedro Mártir, Baja California, Mexico
The TMT Observatory Corporation board of directors narrowed the list to two sites, one in each hemisphere, for further consideration: Cerro Armazones in Chile's Atacama Desert, and Mauna Kea on Hawai'i Island. On July 21, 2009 the TMT Board selected Mauna Kea as the preferred site. The final TMT site selection decision was based on a combination of scientific, financial, and political criteria; ESO is also building a very large telescope E-ELT, and was very likely to be doing so in Chile, and if both next-generation telescopes were in the same hemisphere, there would be many astronomical objects that neither could observe.
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