Spain judge nixes backup site for disputed Hawaii telescope

FILE - This July 14, 2019, file photo shows a telescope at the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii’s tallest mountain. A judicial decision from Spain’s Canary Islands has put a halt on an alternative plan to build a giant telescope unpopular in Hawaii, which is the preferred location. Construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope on Hawaii’s tallest mountain, Mauna Kea, has been stalled by opponents who say the project will desecrate land that’s sacred to some Native Hawaiians. If it can’t be built in Hawaii, telescope officials have selected the alternate location on the highest mountain of La Palma, a Spanish island off Africa’s western coast. But a court there ruled last month in a decision that just emerged that a public concession for the site was invalid. . (AP Photo/Caleb Jones, File)

MADRID — A Spanish judge in a decision cheered by environmentalists has put a halt to backup plans for the construction of a giant telescope in the Canary Islands — eliminating at least for now the primary alternative location to the preferred spot in Hawaii, where there have been protests against the telescope.

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