Shining Light on Gravity: Sometimes All That Shimmers IS Gold

Gates Performing Arts Center, HPA Campus, Waimea (Kamuela, HI) Guest Speaker: Ryan Foley, Assistant Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at University of California, Santa Cruz ASTRONOMY TALK | In 1916, Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves, a radiant form of energy similar to light, but caused by gravity. A century later, scientists detected the […]

Dragonflies, Dark Matter, and the Hunt for Ghostly Galaxies

Gates Performing Arts Center, HPA Campus, Waimea (Kamuela, HI) Guest Speaker: Pieter van Dokkum, Sol Goldman Family Professor of Astronomy and Divisional Director of Physical Sciences and Engineering at Yale University ASTRONOMY TALK | They are so ghostly that you can see right through them! They look unlike any other galaxies we’ve seen before. Learn about […]

AstroDay West Hawaii

Join W. M. Keck Observatory and fellow Maunakea Observatories for the 2nd Annual AstroDay West in Kailua-Kona – a celebration of astronomy & community! Big Mahalo to Kona Commons, who is hosting the space at the former Sports Authority at Kona Commons for a second year in a row. In addition to many of the […]

The Monster at the Heart of Our Galaxy

Honokaa People’s Theater45-3574 Mamane St Honokaa, HI 96727 Download Poster Guest Speaker: Andrea Ghez, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles ; UCLA Galactic Center Group Director      ASTRONOMY TALK | Discover this year’s exciting new developments in unraveling the mysteries of supermassive black holes.  Through 20 years of high-resolution imaging, […]

Keck Observatory Open House 2017

WAIMEA HEADQUARTERS: 65-1120 Mamalahoa Highway, Kamuela HI 96743 You’re invited! Come join us as we open the doors of our Waimea Headquarters to the community for a fun, family-friendly event filled with cosmic activities and a star-studded program featuring renowned astronomers and engineers. Bring your keiki, ohana, friends, and neighbors to experience a variety of […]

The Golden Age of Space Exploration

Gates Performing Arts Center, HPA Campus, Waimea (Kamuela, HI) Download PDF Guest Speaker: Charles Elachi, Caltech Professor of Electrical Engineering and Planetary Science, Emeritus, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Director 2001- 2016 ASTRONOMY TALK | Over the last 50 years, JPL spacecraft have visited every planet in our solar system and roved for more than 14 […]

Journey Through the Universe: Landscapes of the Moon and Mars

Gates Performing Arts Center, HPA Campus, Waimea Download PDF Brian Day, Lead for Lunar and Planetary Mapping and Modeling, Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI), NASA Ames Research Center ASTRONOMY TALK – Brian Day will give a demonstration of the lunar and planetary mapping and modeling portals his team developed at NASA. He will […]

The Science Behind the Movie Interstellar with Nobel Prize Winner Kip Thorne

Mauna Lani Bay Hotel: 68-1400 Mauna Lani Drive, Kohala Coast, Hawaii – Hale Hoaloha Pavilion Download PDF Theoretical astrophysicist Kip Thorne, 2017 Nobel Physics Prize Laureate, Executive Producer of Interstellar, Caltech Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics, Emeritus, Co-founder of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) KECK OBSERVATORY ASTRONOMY TALK: How scientifically accurate is the […]

AstroDay in East Hawaiʻi Returns May 14

Celebrate Big Island Science & Astronomy  The Maunakea Observatories’ AstroDay in Hilo is back—and this year, you can attend in person! This annual celebration of Hawaiʻi science and astronomy will feature hands-on activities, games, giveaways, and demonstrations for all ages. Our Keck Observatory staff will be giving away build-your-own spectrograph kits, an instrument astronomers use […]

Hawaiʻi Science Walk

Welcome to the Hawaiʻi Science Walk! Join scientists from around Hawaiʻi as we explore our island, our world, and the vast expanses of space. Each video describes research being done here in Hawaiʻi that broadens our understanding of our world. Combined, this research helps astronomers using the Maunakea Observatories and the James Webb Space Telescope […]

Kepler, TESS, and Keck Observatory – Driving Our Understanding of Exoplanetary Systems

GUEST SPEAKER: David Ciardi, Chief Scientist, NASA Exoplanet Science Institute VIRTUAL ASTRONOMY TALK: Launched in 2009, NASA’s Kepler revolutionized our understanding of other worlds by discovering thousands of exoplanet systems. 10 years after Kepler ended, NASA launched TESS to continue the revolution by finding planets around brighter, nearby stars. Ground-based telescopes have been critical to […]

A Planet Not Our Own

GUEST SPEAKER: Elizabeth Tasker, Associate Professor, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Institute of Space and Astronautical Sciences (ISAS) VIRTUAL ASTRONOMY TALK: We thought we understood the planets of our solar system until we discovered new worlds beyond our own Sun – planets the size of Jupiter with orbits completed in an Earth day, planets with […]