Mauna Kea in the context of "2023 KQ14"

The Mauna Kea Observatories (MKO) are a group of independent astronomical research facilities and large telescope observatories that are located at the summit of Mauna Kea on Hawaiʻi, United States. The facilities are located in a 525-acre (212 ha) special land use zone known as the "Astronomy Precinct", which is located within the 11,228-acre (4,544 ha) Mauna Kea Science Reserve. The Astronomy Precinct was established in 1967 and is located on land protected by the Historical Preservation Act for its significance to Hawaiian culture. The presence and continued construction of telescopes is highly controversial due to Mauna Kea's centrality in native Hawaiian religion and culture, as well as for a variety of environmental reasons.

The location is nearly ideal because of its dark skies from lack of light pollution, good astronomical seeing due to low atmospheric turbulence, low humidity, high elevation of 4,207 m (13,802 ft), position above most of the water vapor in the atmosphere, clean air, low cloud cover and low latitude location.

The W. M. Keck Observatory is an astronomical observatory with two telescopes at an elevation of 4,145 meters (13,600 ft) near the summit of Mauna Kea in the U.S. state of Hawaii. Both telescopes have 10 m (33 ft) aperture primary mirrors, and, when completed in 1993 (Keck I) and 1996 (Keck II), they were the largest optical reflecting telescopes in the world. They have been the third and fourth largest since 2006.

Mauna Loa (/ˌmɔːnə ˈloʊ.ə, ˌmaʊnə -/, Hawaiian: [ˈmɐwnə ˈlowə]; lit. 'Long Mountain') is one of five volcanoes that form the Island of Hawaii in the U.S. state of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. Mauna Loa is Earth's largest active volcano by both mass and volume. It was historically considered to be the largest volcano on Earth until the submarine mountain Tamu Massif was discovered to be larger. Mauna Loa is a shield volcano with relatively gentle slopes, and a volume estimated at 18,000 cubic miles (75,000 km), although its peak is about 125 feet (38 m) lower than that of its neighbor, Mauna Kea. Lava eruptions from Mauna Loa are silica-poor and very fluid, and tend to be non-explosive.

Mauna Loa has likely been erupting for at least 700,000 years, and may have emerged above sea level about 400,000 years ago. Some dated rocks are 470,000 years old. The volcano's magma comes from the Hawaii hotspot, which has been responsible for the creation of the Hawaiian Island chain over tens of millions of years. The slow drift of the Pacific Plate will eventually carry Mauna Loa away from the hotspot within 500,000 to one million years from now, at which point it will become extinct.

This is a list of the tallest mountains in the Solar System. This list includes peaks on all celestial bodies where significant mountains have been detected. For some celestial bodies, different peaks are given across different types of measurement. The solar system's tallest mountain is possibly the Olympus Mons on Mars with an altitude of 21.9 to 26 km. The central peak of Rheasilvia on the asteroid Vesta is also a candidate to be the tallest, with an estimated at up to between 19 and 22 km from peak to base.