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Clouds On Neptune Perform a Surprise Disappearing Act
Maunakea, Hawaiʻi – For the first time in nearly three decades of observations, clouds seen on Neptune have all but vanished. Images from 1994 to 2022 of the big blue planet captured from Maunakea on Hawaiʻi Island through the lens of W. M. Keck Observatory, along with views from space via NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope […]
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Two-Faced Star Exposed: Unusual White Dwarf Star is Made of Hydrogen on One Side and Helium on the Other
Maunakea, Hawaiʻi – In a first for white dwarfs, the burnt-out cores of dead stars, astronomers have discovered that at least one member of this cosmic family is two-faced. One side of the white dwarf is composed of hydrogen, while the other is made up of helium. The findings, which include data from the Zwicky […]
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Starlight and the First Black Holes: Researchers Detect the Host Galaxies of Quasars in the Early Universe
Maunakea, Hawaiʻi – An international team of scientists, including Chien-Hsiu Lee, staff astronomer at W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawaiʻi Island, has captured images for the first time of starlight from two massive galaxies hosting actively growing black holes, or quasars, from less than a billion years after the Big Bang. The successful detection […]
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Life After Death: Hawaiʻi Astronomers Find a Planet that Shouldn’t Exist
Maunakea, Hawaiʻi – When our Sun reaches the end of its life, it will expand to 100 times its current size, enveloping the Earth. Many planets in other solar systems face a similar doom as their host stars grow old. But not all hope is lost, as astronomers from the University of Hawaiʻi Institute for […]
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New Era of Exoplanet Discovery Begins with Images of ‘Jupiter’s Younger Sibling’
Maunakea, Hawaiʻi – Astronomers using W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawaiʻi Island have discovered one of the lowest-mass planets whose images have been directly captured. Not only were they able to measure its mass, but they were also able to determine that its orbit is similar to the giant planets in our own solar […]
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Rare Gravitational Lensing Warps Light Of Distant Supernova Into Four Images
Maunakea, Hawaiʻi – Astronomers have captured a bizarre image of a supernova, the powerful explosion of a star, whose light was so warped by the gravity of a galaxy that it appears as multiple images in the sky. This effect, known as gravitational lensing, occurs when the gravity of a dense object distorts and brightens […]
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Astronomers Capture Direct Image of Ancient Galaxy Recycling Gas to Make New Stars
Maunakea, Hawaiʻi – Astronomers have found direct evidence showing ancient galaxies were able to sustain star formation by recycling gas from previous stars to birth new generations of stars. This recycled gas could have been enough to supply all the material needed for galaxies in the early universe to grow, shedding new light on the […]
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First Detection of Radio Waves from a Type Ia Supernova
Maunakea, Hawaiʻi – A team of astronomers led by Stockholm University has discovered an unusual Type Ia supernova – or thermonuclear supernova – called SN 2020eyj. Not only did they make the first detection of such a supernova in radio waves, follow-up observations from W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawaiʻi Island also showed strong […]
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A Strange, Solitary Life for Young Stars at the Milky Way’s Center
Maunakea, Hawaiʻi – Stars living closest to the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way have no stellar companions, a new study finds. Using W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawaiʻi Island, Devin Chu of Hilo, an astronomer with the UCLA Galactic Center Orbits Initiative, led a 10-year survey that found these […]
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Star Eats Planet, Brightens Dramatically
For the first time, astronomers have caught a star in the act of swallowing a planet whole.
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