2003 Press Releases

BIGGEST, BRIGHTEST, HOTTEST STAR-FORMING REGION FOUND

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Oct 30, 2003

MAUNA KEA, Hawaii (October 30th, 2003) A serendipitous discovery has given astronomers, for the first time, the ability to study an enormous star-forming region from the very early days of the Universe, when it was less than 2 billion years…

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LASER GUIDE STAR AVAILABLE FOR ADAPTIVE OPTICS

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Oct 7, 2003

KAMUELA, Hawaii (October 7th, 2003) A major milestone in astronomical history took place last month at the W.M. Keck Observatory when scientists, for the first time, used a laser to create an artificial guide star on the Keck II 10-meter…

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KECK INTERFEROMETER BREAKS GALACTIC BARRIER

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Oct 1, 2003

MAUNA KEA, Hawaii (October 1st, 2003) A galaxy far beyond our own Milky Way, with a monstrous, churning black hole in its center, has been observed by two optical telescopes working in unison as an interferometer. These observations reveal the…

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UCLA OBTAINS MOLECULAR FINGERPRINTS FOR CELESTIAL BROWN DWARFS

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Sep 3, 2003

MAUNA KEA, Hawaii (September 3rd, 2003) Elusive brown dwarfs, the missing link between gas giant planets like Jupiter and small, low-mass stars, have now been “fingerprinted”by UCLA astronomy professor Ian S. McLean and colleagues, using the Keck II Telescope at…

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HIGH-RESOLUTION IMAGES OF ASTEROID (511) DAVIDA

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Sep 1, 2003

MONTEREY, Calif. (September 1st, 2003) A team of scientists from the W.M. Keck Observatory and several other research institutions have made the first full-rotational, ground-based observations of asteroid (511) Davida, a large, main-belt asteroid that measures 320 km (200 miles)…

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Keck Interferometer MAKES DEBUT DISCOVERY

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Jul 1, 2003

KAMUELA, Hawaii (July 1st, 2003) Astronomers have observed a young star ringed by a swirling disc that may spin off planets, marking the first published science observation using two linked 10-meter (33-foot) telescopes in Hawaii. The linked telescopes at the…

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NEW EVIDENCE FOUND ABOUT UNIVERSE’S HEAVIEST PHASE OF STAR FORMATION

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Apr 16, 2003

PASADENA, Calif. (April 16th, 2003) New distance measurements from faraway galaxies further strengthen the view that the strongest burst of star formation in the universe occurred about two billion years after the Big Bang. Reporting in the April 17 issue…

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KECK OBSERVATORY’S PREMIER PLANET-HUNTING MACHINE IS GETTING EVEN BETTER

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Jan 6, 2003

SEATTLE, Washington (January 6th, 2003) The world’s best planet-hunting machine, the Keck High Resolution Echelle Spectrometer, will be getting even better this year with an advanced imaging array that will improve efforts to detect extra-solar planets, examine distant quasars, measure…

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