‘The door is open’ : Iranian astronomers seek collaborations for their new, world-class telescope | Science | AAAS
▻https://www.science.org/content/article/door-open-iranian-astronomers-seek-collaborations-their-new-world-class-tel
▻https://www.science.org/do/10.1126/science.adf4145/abs/_10221018_on_iran_telescope.jpg
In a major milestone for Iran’s scientific community, astronomers announced today in Tehran that the Iranian National Observatory (INO) has seen “first light”: The world-class, 3.4-meter optical telescope, whose future appeared cloudy just last year, is operational and has acquired its debut images.
“We’ve been waiting for this moment for so long,” says INO Project Director Habib Khosroshahi, an astronomer at the Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM) in Tehran.
First light for the $25 million observatory “comes at a turbulent time,” Khosroshahi acknowledges. Iran has been roiled by protests since last month’s death in police custody of a young woman who’d been arrested for not wearing her hijab properly. “We’re anxious about how our announcement will be interpreted,” Khosroshahi says. “But we want to emphasize that INO is for all the people of Iran. We couldn’t keep this news to ourselves anymore.”
INO’s scientific odyssey began 2 decades ago—and faced long odds. “When they started this project, it was just a dream. No one in Iran had attempted anything on this scale before,” says Gerry Gilmore, an astronomer at the University of Cambridge and chair of INO’s international advisory board.
(Admirez au passage comment la revue Science se fait pardonner de publier cette information favorable à l’Iran en évoquant, sans guère de pertinence pour le sujet, les troubles dans le pays.)