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Zooming in on Infant Planetary Systems
Like a raindrop forming in a cloud, a star forms in a diffuse gas cloud in deep space. As the star grows, its gravitational pull draws in dust and gas from the surrounding molecular cloud to form a swirling “protoplanetary disk.” This disk eventually further consolidates to form planets, moons, asteroids and comets. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. […]
Read More >Keck Observatory Project Scientist wins 2010 Kavli Prize
Jerry Nelson, designer of the Keck telescopes, stands in front of the Keck I dome. Credit: Roger Ressmeyer/CORBIS. Jerry Nelson, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and designer of the revolutionary segmented-mirror Keck telescopes will share the $1 million Kavli Prize in Astrophysics with two other researchers for their innovations in the […]
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Keck Observatory Project Scientist wins 2010 Kavli Prize
KAMUELA, HI—Jerry Nelson, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and designer of the revolutionary segmented-mirror Keck telescopes will share the $1 million Kavli Prize in Astrophysics with two other researchers for their innovations in the field of telescope design. The achievements of Nelson and his co-recipients—Roger Angel of the University of Arizona, […]
Read More >Keck Astronomer Wins Gruber Prize for Cosmology
Charles Steidel, the Lee A. DuBridge Professor of Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology, is the recipient of the 2010 Cosmology Prize of the Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation in recognition of his revolutionary studies using Keck Observatory of the most distant galaxies in the Universe. Credit: California Institute of Technology. Charles Steidel was […]
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Steidel receives Gruber Cosmology Prize for Observations of Earliest Galaxies
NEW YORK, NY – Charles Steidel, the Lee A. DuBridge Professor of Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology, is the recipient of the 2010 Cosmology Prize of The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation. The award recognizes Steidel’s revolutionary studies using the W. M. Keck Observatory of the most distant galaxies in the Universe. “Professor […]
Read More >A Mirror’s Perfect Reflection
If you think washing the mirrors and windows in your home is a daunting task, imagine cleaning two of the largest light-collecting surfaces in the astronomy world—the twin 10-meter Keck telescope mirrors. Keck Observatory’s two primary mirrors are each comprised of 36 hexagonal segments. Each segment is 1.8 meters, or 6 feet, in diameter, weighs […]
Read More >Dancing White Dwarfs
The UCSB team that discovered a white dwarf binary. Left to Right: David Kaplan, Justin Steinfadt, Avi Shporer, Lars Bildsten. Credit: George Foulsham, Office of Public Affairs, UCSB. Astrophysicists using the Keck Observatory have identified two white dwarf stars in an eclipsing binary system, allowing for the first direct radius measurement of a rare white […]
Read More >Best in Show
University of Hawaiʻi photographer R. David Beales won Best in Show at the University Photographers Association of America, or UPAA, competition for his December 2009 image “Mauna Kea Summit,” which features the W. M. Keck Observatory’s laser piercing the Hawaiian night sky. The Observatory was the first large telescope to apply adaptive optics for obtaining […]
Read More >Possible new type of Supernovae puts Calcium in your Bones
One theory of this new exploding system, shown in the simulation images (above), is that a white dwarf steals helium from a companion until the mass thief becomes very hot and dense and a nuclear explosion occurs. The helium is transformed into elements such as calcium and titanium, eventually producing the building blocks of life […]
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Possible new type of Supernovae puts Calcium in your Bones
KAMUELA, HI — New data from several telescopes, including the W. M. Keck Observatory, suggest astronomers may have identified a new type of supernovae. The stellar death is thought to have originated in a star that was a low-mass white dwarf accumulating helium from a companion star. When the white dwarf exploded, about half of […]
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