United Kingdom Infrared Telescope

United Kingdom Infrared Telescope

UKIRT, the United Kingdom Infra-Red Telescope, is a 3.8 metre (150 inch) infrared reflecting telescope, the second largest dedicated infrared (1 to 30 micrometres) telescope in the world. It is operated by the Joint Astronomy Centre in Hilo and located on Mauna Kea, Hawai'i as part of Mauna Kea Observatory. It is owned by the United Kingdom Science and Technology Facilities Council, which announced it was gong to shut it down or transfer operations at the end of 2013. Scientists described the shutdown as "very sad" and noted its cutting edge science.

Read more about United Kingdom Infrared Telescope:  History, Instrumentation, Upgrades, Shutdown, Contemporaries On Commissioning

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