Mauna Kea

Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii with a light dusting of snow. Viewed from Kohala Mountain

Mauna Kea is a dormant volcano in the Hawaiian Islands. It is the highest point in Hawaii at 4,205 meters. If measured from top to bottom, below sea level, it is 10,200 meters high and would be the tallest mountain in the world. It is around 1,000,000 years old. Mauna Kea means 'white mountain' because in winter it often has snow at the summit.

Astronomy

Mauna Kea is an important site for astronomy. Many different countries or institutions have an observatory there, including the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. The W. M. Keck Observatory with its 10-meter mirror is one of the most powerful in the world. Mauna Kea is an important site, especially for infrared astronomy, because of its height and clear skies.

High altitude is important because atmosphere causes an effect called seeing, which limits the quality of images by blurring them. At high altitude, there is less atmosphere between the observatories and space and this lessens the effect.

Mauna Kea Media

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  Lava flows from Mauna Loa caught by one of the International Gemini Observatory’s Cloudcams, which operates 24/7 near the snow-covered summit of Maunakea (the highest point in the image).(on 27 November 2022).

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  A stone structure or ahu facing Mauna Kea, on Saddle Road between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa

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  View of the mountain from Mauna Loa Observatory

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  Maunakea, one of the volcanoes constituting the island of Hawai‘i, is an inactive shield volcano and one of the tallest mountains on Earth at an elevation of 4205 meters (13,786 feet).

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  David Douglas, a Scottish botanist who died on Mauna Kea in 1834

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  Mauna Kea silversword (Argyroxiphium sandwicense sandwicense) growing near the volcano's summit

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  A pair of māmane (Sophora chrysophylla) trees

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  The ʻalalā or Hawaiian crow (Corvus hawaiiensis) is a bird in the crow family. It is extinct in the wild, with plans to reintroduce the species into the Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge.

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  Sunset over four telescopes of the Mauna Kea Observatories. From left to right: the Subaru Telescope, the twin Keck I and II telescopes, and the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility.