A remote peak in southern Utah could join the international search for Earth-like planets that are orbiting distant stars.
    The University of Utah is laying the groundwork to build a telescope observatory near Bryce Canyon National Park. Astronomers in Salt Lake City would be able to remotely control the proposed 32-inch telescope, which should be installed by 2009.
    "It's a beautiful place to do astronomy," U. physicist David Kieda said Wednesday.
    Southern Utah's dark skies are among the area's most attractive features for astronomers, said Peter Stang, dean of the U. College of Science.
    "It's a very good dark spot with no major light pollution from nearby cities," Stang said, adding that the Southern Utah Observatory will bolster the U.'s growing astronomy program.
    As cities across the nation continue to sprawl, more lights pollute the night skies. Southern Utah is among the few places with vast, undeveloped stretches free from the glare of city lights, Kieda said.
    "It's one of the last remaining patches of dark sky in the U.S.," he said.
    The telescope will match the state's largest existing telescope, a 32-inch unit in Stansbury Park, run by the Salt Lake Astronomical Society.
    While both telescopes are similar in size, the society's apparatus must deal with the nighttime glow of Salt Lake City on the other side of the Oquirrh Mountains, said Paolo Gondolo, a U. researcher involved in the project.
    "They can't really see faint objects," Gondolo said of the astronomy society's set-up.
    Another difference will be that the U.'s telescope can operate year-round without an operator at the observatory. SLAS's telescope must have a user at the helm to operate.
    Astronomers will provide the observatory with a set of targets each night, and computers will direct where the telescope needs to be pointed, Gondolo said.
    Earth-like planets will be only one goal for the proposed telescope. So far, researchers have cataloged about 200 planets in other solar systems, but most are the size of Jupiter or larger.
    Planets capable of supporting life are tougher to see, as they are small and orbit close to their respective suns.
    The Southern Utah Observatory will not likely ever see such a planet, but it could detect the presence of an Earth-like object based on the movement of distant stars, Gondolo said.
    The project also will be involved in cosmic ray research. Kieda spent part of his "Science at Breakfast" talk Wednesday discussing a project in Arizona the U. is involved with known as Veritas. This program, which becomes fully operational today, is seeking to study very high energy cosmic rays.
    Cosmic rays, which are high-energy particles darting through the galaxy, could offer clues to the composition of the universe, Kieda said.
    Gondolo said the U.'s telescope will stop whatever it is doing to turn toward the source of the gamma rays, such as a nebula, and record information optically and using infrared.
    Salt Lake City's Clark Planetarium will play a role in providing educational materials based on what the telescope finds, although it is unclear whether the planetarium will be able to log time on the telescope, planetarium director Seth Jarvis said.
    "We'd like to have remote access to it, but nothing is guaranteed," he said. A long-term goal of the planetarium is to set up a telescope somewhere in Utah's dark-sky country so viewers in Salt Lake City can have a better view of the cosmos.
    The Willard Eccles Foundation provided $600,000 for the telescope - which will be built by an Arizona company.
    Other groups involved include the state, Brigham Young University, Utah State University, Weber State University, Dixie State College, University of Nevada Las Vegas, University of Florida and the University of Chicago.
    Parker Mountain is a leading location at the moment, but other possibilities include Boulder Mountain and Frisco Peak, Gondolo said.
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    * GREG LAVINE can be contacted at glavine@sltrib.com or at 801-257-8620. Send comments to livingeditor@sltrib.com.