News
Cosmic Matters
NASA Releases New JWST and W. M. Keck Observatory Images of Titan, Saturn’s Moon
Maunakea, Hawaiʻi – From space with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and on the ground with the W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawaiʻi Island, astronomers have tag-teamed to capture a set of extraordinary images revealing large clouds in the northern hemisphere of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. “Detecting clouds is exciting because it validates […]
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W. M. Keck Observatory Achieves First Light with Keck Planet Finder
Maunakea, Hawaiʻi – A new planet-hunting instrument at W. M. Keck Observatory has achieved “first light,” capturing its first data from the sky and marking an exciting chapter in the search for Earth-sized planets around other stars, which are extraordinarily difficult to detect due to their small size. Operating on the Keck I Telescope on […]
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W. M. Keck Observatory’s Chief of Technical Development Peter Wizinowich Wins 2022 Joseph Weber Award
Maunakea, Hawaiʻi – Congratulations to Dr. Peter Wizinowich, chief of technical development at W. M. Keck Observatory, who has been awarded the 2022 American Astronomical Society (AAS) Joseph Weber Award for Astronomical Instrumentation. In an announcement made today, the AAS named recipients of its 2022 prizes for outstanding achievements in research and education and recognized […]
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Lānaʻi High School Students Win Telescope Time on Maunakea, Haleakalā
An inaugural cohort of Maunakea Scholars at Lānaʻi High School have won highly competitive, professional observing time at some of Hawaiʻi’s leading telescopes, including W. M. Keck Observatory. During an awards ceremony on Tuesday, April 26, the Maunakea Observatories announced the winning proposals from three students. The Lānaʻi high schoolers were rewarded for their research […]
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W. M. Keck Observatory Achieves First Light with LRIS Upgrade
Maunakea, Hawaii – W. M. Keck Observatory’s science community is celebrating the successful revitalization of the Low Resolution Imaging Spectrometer, or LRIS – one of the Observatory’s acclaimed instruments used in Nobel Prize-winning research. The instrument team tasked with the LRIS rescue mission has completed a 2-night engineering run; within hours of the first night […]
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UH Astronomers and Maunakea Observatories to Help Map the Universe’s First Galaxies
Maunakea, Hawaii – University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy (IfA) astronomers will play an instrumental role in helping unveil the universe’s very first galaxies, more than 13 billion light years away. This week, NASA announced the first suite of science programs for its groundbreaking James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), set to launch in October 2021. The IfA researchers are part of the “COSMOS-Webb” project, which […]
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Discovery of a Single Fast Radio Burst’s Home Galaxy Wins Prestigious Award
W. M. Keck Observatory Astronomers Among the Authors Awarded the 2020 AAAS Newcomb Cleveland Prize Maunakea, Hawaii – A historic feat in successfully zeroing in on the precise location of a non-repeating fast radio burst has earned the highest recognition from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The international team that made […]
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Beyond the Impossible
Maunakea, Hawaii – W. M. Keck Observatory presents its new film, “Beyond the Impossible,” which made its public debut on December 17, 2020, with over 300 people in attendance for the virtual screening. The documentary picks up the story after the twin Keck I and Keck II telescopes achieved first light and chronicles the exciting […]
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W. M. Keck Observatory and REC Solar Announce Completion of Major Sustainability Project in Hawaii
Maunakea, Hawaii– In its commitment to reduce the organization’s carbon footprint and lower the cost of energy, W. M. Keck Observatory and Duke Energy’s REC Solar are pleased to announce the completion and operation of a solar project atop Maunakea on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi. The solar photovoltaic (PV) system is on the rooftop […]
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Adaptive Optics: Providing Clarity to Observations
Maunakea, Hawaii – Dr. Peter Wizinowich, based at W. M. Keck Observatory on Hawaii Island, is an engineer who specializes in optical sciences in astrophysics. His work involves using adaptive optics to improve the imaging capabilities of some of the world’s largest telescopes. In 1608, Dutch eyeglass maker Hans Lippershey patented the world’s first telescope […]
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