News
News
Record Massive Black Holes Found Lurking in Monster Galaxies
BERKELEY—Astronomers using the Keck II telescope and other observatories have discovered the largest black holes to date—two monsters with masses equivalent to 10 billion Suns that are threatening to consume anything, even light, within a region five times the size of our solar system. These black holes are at the centers of two galaxies more […]
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Keck Telescopes Find 18 New Exoplanets
KAMUELA, Hawaii—A whopping 18 new, bona fide exoplanets have been discovered and confirmed by a team of Caltech astronomers using the Keck Telescopes and two other ground-based observatories. “It’s the largest single announcement of planets in orbit around stars more massive than the sun, aside from the discoveries made by the Kepler mission,” says John […]
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TEDxHONOLULU – Dr. Michael Liu – Telescopes as Time Machines
Watch these 18 science-packed minutes from this recent live webcast of Dr. Mike Liu, a frequent Keck Telescope user.
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Keck, Magellan & Hubble Telescopes Find Galactic Recyclers
Kamuela, HI – The secret of longevity is recycling, at least for galaxies, say astronomers who have used a trio of the world’s best telescopes to study the uncharted space around vibrant star-birthing galaxies and their not-so-vibrant siblings. Galaxies learned to “go green” early in the history of the universe, continuously recycling immense volumes of […]
Read More >Keeping Keck Telescopes Shiny
By Andrew Cooper A telescope is all about the primary mirror. Be it a lens or a curved mirror, the size of the primary matters. The larger the primary the more light that can be gathered, allowing astronomers to observe and analyze distant cosmic objects like exceedingly faint galaxies at the far reaches of time […]
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Found: Pristine Gas From The Big Bang
Kamuela, HI – Two clumps of primordial gas from the dawn of time have been detected in deep space by astronomers using the 10-meter telescopes at the W. M. Keck Observatory. The gas clouds are too diffuse to form stars and show virtually no signs of containing any “metals,” which is astronomer-speak for all elements […]
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Keck Telescope Snaps Images of Asteroid’s Exit
Kamuela HI – One of the world’s largest optical/infrared telescopes has captured near-infrared light images of asteroid YU55 as it was departing its close flyby of Earth the night of Nov. 8, 2011. The observing run on the Keck II telescope was webcast live to a large audience on UStream directly from the Keck II […]
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Youngest Planet Seen As It’s Forming
Kamuela, HI – The first direct image of a planet in the process of forming around its star has been captured by astronomers who combined the power of the 10-meter Keck telescopes with a bit of optical sleight of hand. What astronomers are calling LkCa 15 b, looks like a hot “protoplanet” surrounded by a […]
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Astronomical Myths & Facts
This our first in what we hope becomes a series of Observatory Intelligence Quotient (O.I.Q.) quizzes. Ready, set, go! 1) TRUE or FALSE? Keck astronomers are easily identified in the streets of Waimea because they all have bloodshot eyes from spending nights looking through the eyepieces of the telescopes at nearly 14,000 feet above sea […]
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Oxygen: Breathing the Universe
Here is the video recording of the Oct. 13, 2011, Keck Observatory Astronomy Talk by Dr. Lisa Kewley, of the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy. The venue is the historic Kahilu Theatre in Waimea on the Big Island of Hawaii. Part One Part Two
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