Hawai`i's land board today has granted a construction permit for the Thirty Meter Telescope atop Mauna Kea, a mountain which Hawaiians consider sacred.
It is a project that has sharply divided those who live in Hawai`i.
The $1.4 billion Thirty Meter Telescope has pitted people who say the instrument will provide educational and economic opportunities against those who say it will desecrate the tallest mountain and most sacred land in Hawai`i.
Plans for what would be one of the world's largest telescopes date to 2009, when scientists selected Mauna Kea after a five-year around-the-world campaign to find the ideal site for what telescope officials say "will likely revolutionize our understanding of the universe."
The project won a series of approvals from Hawai`i, including a permit to build on conservation land in 2011.
Protectors of the mauna blocked attempts to start construction.
Then in 2015, the state Supreme Court invalidated the permit and ordered the project to undergo the process all over again.
