News
News
Nobel Prize in Physics awarded for Accelerating Expansion of the Universe
The expansion of the universe is accelerating, and this is likely driven by dark energy, a mysterious repulsive force. Three astronomers won the Nobel prize on Tuesday for their research on exploding stars, or supernovae, that led to this profound cosmological conclusion. They are Saul Perlmutter of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, […]
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Universe’s “Standard Candles” Are White Dwarf Mergers
Berkeley — A new survey of distant Type Ia supernovae suggests that many if not most of these supernovae – key to astronomers’ conclusion that dark energy is accelerating the expansion of the universe – result when two white dwarf stars merge and annihilate in a thermonuclear explosion. Evidence that Type Ia supernovae are caused […]
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How I Killed Pluto & Why It Had It Coming: The Video
This is a video recording of the Sept. 15, 2011, lecture by Caltech astronomer Mike Brown. This public lecture was held at Kahilu Theatre in Waimea, on the Big Island of Hawaii. In this talk he explains not only how Pluto was demoted to a dwarf planet, but his controversial role in “killing” Pluto. He […]
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Citizen Scientists, Kepler and Keck Uncover New Planets
Astronomers at Yale University have announced the discovery of the first two potential exoplanets found by the online citizen scientist Planet Hunters program. Users of the Planet Hunters program analyze scientific data collected by NASA’s Kepler mission to assist astronomers in finding planets orbiting nearby stars. The most likely exoplanet candidates are then studied using […]
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Uncovering the Secrets of the Great Supernova
Kamuela, HI – A once-in-a-lifetime nearby stellar explosion now unfolding in a neighboring galaxy has astronomers at the W. M. Keck Observatory scrambling to ask questions that can’t be answered at any other ground-based telescope in the world. The first big question: What causes this pivotally important type of stellar cataclysm? Observing this spectacular supernova, […]
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Bizarre Diamond Planet Found
Astronomers believe they’ve found a small planet made of diamond, orbiting an unusual star. The discovery was made using using ‘The Dish’ — CSIRO’s radio telescope near Parkes, New South Wales, Australia — the Keck Observatory in Hawai’i and the Lovell Radio Telescope in the UK. “Although bizarre, this planet is evidence that we’ve got […]
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Ice & Maybe Methane on ‘Snow White’ Dwarf Planet
Ancient slush-spewing volcanoes slopped water ice across half the surface of the so-called “Snow White” world, say astronomers studying the distant dwarf planet 2007 OR10. Although it will take the giant W. M. Keck Observatory telescopes to be sure, the latest findings from the Magellan Baade Telescope in Chile also suggest that the red-tinged dwarf […]
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Ice & Maybe Methane on ‘Snow White’ Dwarf Planet
Ancient slush-spewing volcanoes slopped water ice across half the surface of the so-called “Snow White” world, say astronomers studying the distant dwarf planet 2007 OR10. Although it will take the giant W. M. Keck Observatory telescopes to be sure, the latest findings from the Magellan Baade Telescope in Chile also suggest that the red-tinged dwarf […]
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Interns Find Opportunities at Keck Observatory
Young people these days. They go through high school and college, trying to find their way in the world with gloom, doom and debt all around them. The path to becoming a highly skilled and employable worker is not easy, despite the unending media reports that America needs such people more than ever. Is it […]
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Found: Heart of Darkness
Kamuela, HI – Astronomers using the 10-meter Keck II telescope in Hawaii have confirmed in a new paper that a troupe of about 1,000 small, dim stars just outside the Milky Way comprise the darkest known galaxy, as well as something else: a treasure trove of ancient stars. By “dark” astronomers are not referring to […]
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