Videos

Explore the people, places, and discoveries that bring Keck Observatory’s mission to life.

What’s it like working for the world’s largest optical and infrared telescopes?

Meet James Chongs and Ash Hooks, Infrastructure Technicians at Keck Observatory. Every day, the Infrastructure team helps care for the facilities and environment that supports world-leading astronomy. Their work reflects a commitment to service and stewardship, expressed through the care they bring to the Observatory, the respect they show for ʻāina, and the communities that shape them.

Behind the Mirror: Inside a Keck Segment Exchange

Every mirror segment plays a critical role in Keck’s scientific discoveries.

Go behind the scenes of a Keck segment exchange and experience the coordination, expertise, and attention to detail required to maintain the performance of the world’s largest optical and infrared telescopes.

Keck Observatory Donor Salon
Galaxies Viewed Through Cosmic Magnifying Glasses

Galaxies Viewed Through Cosmic Magnifying Glasses

The gravitational field of massive objects distorts space and time, even acting as a “gravitational lens” by deflecting the path …
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Astronomy Talk
Lifting the Fog on the Early Universe

Lifting the Fog on the Early Universe

Just after the Big Bang, the universe was filled with a fog of cool hydrogen gas. When the first stars …
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Astronomy Talk
Exploring Galaxies and Beyond

Exploring Galaxies and Beyond

Galaxies turn gas into giant collections of stars that light up the universe.  This simple statement of what happens with …
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Astronomy Talk
Cosmic Fireworks

Cosmic Fireworks

Our dynamic universe is adorned by cosmic fireworks: energetic and ephemeral beacons of light that are a million (nova) to …
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Astronomy Talk
Decoding the Contents of Distant Galaxies

Decoding the Contents of Distant Galaxies

Our Milky Way is one of countless galaxies in the universe. Understanding the formation and evolution of galaxies remains one …
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Keck Observatory Donor Salon
Using Keck to Explore Planetary Systems Orbiting Nearby Stars

Using Keck to Explore Planetary Systems Orbiting Nearby Stars

The search for extrasolar planets has uncovered a dizzying array of planetary systems.  We have found new planet types — …
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Keck Observatory Donor Salon
Searching for Earth-like Planets with the Keck Planet Finder

Searching for Earth-like Planets with the Keck Planet Finder

The search for extrasolar planets has uncovered a dizzying array of planetary systems.  We have found new planet types — …
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Astronomy Talk
Kepler, TESS, and Keck Observatory - Driving Our Understanding of Exoplanetary Systems

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

Launched in 2009, NASA’s Kepler revolutionized our understanding of other worlds by discovering thousands of exoplanet systems. 10 years after …
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Keck Observatory Donor Salon
Planet Nine from Outer Space

Planet Nine from Outer Space

Five years ago, Dr. Brown and his team proposed that unexpected perturbations to the most distant known objects in our …
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Keck Observatory Donor Salon
SCALES: A New Keck Instrument for Imaging Exoplanets at 1000 Wavelengths Simultaneously

SCALES: A New Keck Instrument for Imaging Exoplanets at 1000 Wavelengths Simultaneously

Exoplanets are a class of astrophysical objects, like stars and galaxies, where a wide range of detection and characterization methods …
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Astronomy Talk
A Night in the Life of Keck Observatory

A Night in the Life of Keck Observatory

You’ve seen the discoveries, but how are they made? In this presentation, we follow the process of Keck Observatory’s science, …
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Keck Observatory Donor Salon
Liger: A next-generation instrument for Keck Adaptive Optics

Liger: A next-generation instrument for Keck Adaptive Optics

Keck Adaptive Optics (AO) has been revolutionary in making profound discoveries about our Universe like the first-ever directly-imaged extrasolar planets …
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