News
Cosmic Matters

Pluto from Hawaii
Maunakea, Hawaii –The past two weeks have been 14 monumental days for beings on Earth interested in Pluto and its five moons. While many people think it’s pretty cool to see images of features like ice mountains on the most mysterious planet (even if it is a dwarf) in our solar system, imagine the excitement […]
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W. M. Keck Observatory Launches App KeckWatch
Kamuela, Hawaii – Today, W. M. Keck Observatory launched a new smartphone app to stoke the curiosity and wonder of astronomy. KeckWatch was built by First Light Design – the makers of category definer Distant Suns(max) – and offers mankind’s collected knowledge of the cosmos on the screen of your iOS device. In addition to being […]
Read More >Director Lewis Shares Vision for Keck Observatory
WAIMEA, HI – As those of you lucky enough to have joined us last Thursday underneath the Hawaiian stars and by the surf of Kauna’oa know, we wrapped up our 10 th season of the Evenings with Astronomers talk series. Through the generous support of Rob and Terry Ryan since 2006, the W. M. Keck Observatory each year […]
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Keck’s Cosmic Web Image Awarded Top Ten Breakthrough for 2014
MAUNA KEA, HAWAII – UC Santa Cruz astronomers who used the W. M. Keck Observatory to capture the first image of a filament of the “cosmic web” have been recognized by the editors of Physics World for one of the “Top Ten Breakthroughs of 2014”. The team, led by UC Santa Cruz astronomers Sebastiano Cantalupo (now at […]
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Walk Our Solar System
By Logan Kugler WAIMEA, HI — How would you like to take a stroll to Venus? Has your family always wanted to visit Saturn? You’ll get your chance on Saturday, November 8th at the 4th Waimea Solar System Walk. Sponsored by the Canada France Hawaii Telescope and the W. M. Keck Observatory, the Solar System Walk takes […]
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Earth and The Milky Way Just Got a Few Trillion New Neighbors
By Logan Kugler Do you know where you live? You probably know your street address and the name of your town, state, and country. But what about your cosmic address — your location among the stars? Thanks to efforts by some astronomers in Hawaii, you can now tell people you live in Laniakea. Scientists have […]
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Cosmic Matters: Stormy Weather on Uranus
Mauna Kea, Hawaii – Weather on any planet can be quite unpredictable. As hurricanes threaten the Aloha State, astronomers working at W. M. Keck Observatory on the island of Hawaii were surprised by the appearance of gigantic swirling storm systems on the distant planet Uranus. During the Voyager encounter with Uranus in 1986, only a scant handful […]
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The New York Times Profiles Geoff Marcy
The following is an excerpt from The New York Times. Click on link below to see full story. “BERKELEY, CALIF. — Last summer a homely room in the basement of a math building on the University of California campus here was ground zero in the epic quest to end cosmic loneliness. An area rug with […]
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Total Lunar Eclipse
Waimea, Hawaii—Hawaii Fans of Keck Observatory are in prime position to view a total lunar eclipse tonight—one of two expected this year. After the full moon rises at sunset, the eclipse will begin just 11 minutes later, at 6:53 pm HST. The partial phase will begin at about 7:53 pm making the moon appear red […]
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Aussie Scientist Finds Rare Supernova at Keck Observatory
By Prof. Duncan Forbes It was a dark and stormy night in the city of Angels. Well, actually it wasn’t. But more on that later… It was a clear night on the summit of Mauna Kea at Keck Observatory on the 20th March. My colleagues and I were using the Echellette Spectrograph and Imager (ESI) […]
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