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Keck Observatory Donor Salon Talk: Correcting the Twinkle with Adaptive Optics, with Dr. Antonin Bouchez
Guest Speaker Dr. Antonin Bouchez Head of Adaptive Optics Development at Keck Observatory Temperature and pressure variations in the Earth’s atmosphere cause stars to appear to twinkle, and the images formed by all telescopes to be slightly blurred. This is true even on Maunakea, which has some of the clearest and most stable atmospheric conditions […]
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Astronomy Talk: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life, From a Reporter’s Perspective
Guest Speaker Nadia Drake Science Journalist For millennia, humans have wondered whether there’s life beyond Earth. Over the last half-century or so, these musings have evolved from fantasy and speculation into a legitimate scientific endeavor, guided largely by the Drake Equation — a formula that estimates the number of detectable extraterrestrial civilizations in our Milky […]
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Faintest Known Star System Orbiting the Milky Way Discovered from Hawaiʻi
Maunakea, Hawaiʻi – A team of astronomers led by the University of Victoria and Yale University has detected an ancient star system traveling around our galaxy named Ursa Major III / UNIONS 1 (UMa3/U1) – the faintest and lowest-mass Milky Way satellite ever discovered, and possibly one of the most dark matter-dominated systems known. The […]
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A Hundred Million Suns
The Most Complete Portrait of a Supernova Ever Maunakea, Hawaiʻi – Accounts of supernovae – exploding stars – go back thousands of years, and while we know today these events create the building blocks of life itself, there are still unanswered questions about the conditions that cause a star to explode. Researchers from the Weizmann […]
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Keck Observatory Donor Salon Talk: A Hilo Boy’s Journey of Becoming an Astronomer
Guest Speaker Dr. Devin Chu UCLA Postdoctoral Scholar Devin Chu is a postdoctoral researcher with the University of California at Los Angeles Galactic Center Group, working under the supervision of Nobel laureate Andrea Ghez. Devin grew up in Hilo and became interested in astronomy at a young age. He will share his path to becoming […]
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Keck Observatory Donor Salon Talk: The Origin of Earth-Like Planets and Their Water
Guest Speaker Dr. Lauren Weiss Assistant Professor of Physics University of Notre Dame Earth’s extensive surface liquid water, which is unique among the terrestrial planets, is a key aspect of its suitability for life. Where did that water come from, and can we expect small, rocky exoplanets to be similarly endowed? In our own solar […]
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Keck Observatory Donor Salon Talk: Seven Years of High-Cadence Solar System Observations using the ‘Twilight Zone’
Guest Speaker Dr. Ned Molter Postdoctoral Scholar, Earth and Planetary Science Department University of California at Berkeley During morning twilight, as the sun begins to rise, the visible-wavelength sky rapidly becomes too bright to observe. The infrared sky remains dark for a few more hours, allowing us to do science until the sun is shining. […]
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WASP-69b: New Images Reveal Exoplanet’s Comet-Like Tail is Surprisingly Longer Than Previously Observed
Maunakea, Hawai‘i – New data from W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawaiʻi Island confirms exoplanet WASP-69b, known for its escaping atmosphere, is forming a comet-like tail that is even longer than previously observed. Named WASP-69b, scientists have studied this Jupiter-sized planet in the past, focusing on its escaping atmosphere and observing only a small […]
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Space Oddity: Uncovering the Origin of the Universe’s Rare Radio Circles
Written by Michelle Franklin, APR Director of Communications, Physical Sciences at University of California, San Diego Maunakea, Hawai‘i– It’s not every day astronomers say, “What is that?” After all, most observed astronomical phenomena are known: stars, planets, black holes and galaxies. But in 2019 the newly completed ASKAP (Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder) telescope picked […]
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W. M. Keck Observatory Appoints Rich Matsuda as Director
International search confirms local-born executive to lead the Observatory Maunakea, Hawaiʻi – The W. M. Keck Observatory today announced the appointment of Rich Matsuda as its next director, effective January 1, 2024. “With the support of our Board of Directors, our Observatory has been making a pivot for the last several years, turning toward a […]
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