Astrophysicists are anxiously awaiting a federal court decision on a lawsuit that threatens a planned gamma ray telescope near Kitt Peak in Arizona. The Tohono O'odham tribe brought suit against the scope this spring, arguing that the deity they believe created the world resides near where the array is to be built.
The National Science Foundation (NSF), which is funding the $13.1 million project with the Department of Energy, has already spent $1 million at the site. Construction was halted after the lawsuit was filed. Under federal law, NSF must seek alternative locations for the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System, which was due to be completed by next fall and would be operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts. "If other sites are not available, then not building [the system] is a possibility," says NSF lawyer Amy Northcutt, although she adds that offsite work on telescope components continues.
NSF last month filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, and the tribe is expected to respond this week. Then it will be up to the court to make a decision.
