Who We Are

NSF’s NOIRLab is the preeminent US national center for ground-based, nighttime optical and infrared astronomy. The mission of NOIRLab is to enable breakthrough discoveries in astrophysics by developing and operating state-of-the-art ground-based observatories and providing data products and services for a diverse and inclusive community.

The TMT International Observatory LLC (TIO) is a non-profit organization established in May 2014 to carry out the construction and operation phases of the Thirty Meter Telescope project. The Members of TIO are Caltech, the University of California, the National Institutes of Natural Sciences of Japan, the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Department of Science and Technology of India, and the National Research Council (Canada). The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) is a TIO Associate. Major funding has been provided by the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation.

GMTO Corporation carries out the development and operation of the Giant Magellan Telescope facility on behalf of a consortium of academic and research institutions: Arizona State University, Astronomy Australia Ltd., Australian National University, Carnegie Institution for Science, FAPESP - The São Paulo Research Foundation, Harvard University, Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, Smithsonian Institution, Texas A&M University, The University of Texas at Austin, The University of Arizona, The University of Chicago, and The Weizmann Institute of Science.