Why is Taiwan leading this project?

The main character in the Greenland Telescope Project is of course the telescope itself. The 12-meter antenna, which is now standing in the Pituffik Space Base, was originally belonged to the National Science Foundation of the United States. The ALMA North American team built this prototype antenna to determine that the specifications and standards were fully compliant when building the telescopes used for ALMA.

In April 2011, after soliciting usage plans and committee reviews, the National Science Foundation granted the antenna to a team led by ASIAA for use, because of the proposed visionary scientific goals. The team also includes the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (SAO), the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), and the Haystack Observatory in the United States. According to the proposal made by the team at that time, the antenna will be moved to Greenland, which is an ideal location for observing submillimeter waves. It will be connected with ALMA and SMA both of which our institute has usage rights for, and other submillimeter radio telescopes around the world, making this 12-meter antenna part of a global very long baseline interferometer array. In this way, more remarkable scientific goals can be achieved, such as observing black holes.