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Teardrop Star Reveals Hidden Supernova Doom
Maunakea, Hawaiʻi – Astronomers have made the rare sighting of two stars spiraling to their doom by spotting the tell-tale signs of a teardrop-shaped star. The tragic shape is caused by a massive nearby white dwarf distorting the star with its intense gravity, which will also be the catalyst for an eventual supernova that will […]
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A White Dwarf Living on the Edge
Astronomers Have Identified A White Dwarf So Massive That It Might Collapse Maunakea and Haleakala, Hawaiʻi – Astronomers have discovered the smallest and most massive white dwarf ever seen. The smoldering cinder, which formed when two less massive white dwarfs merged, is heavy, “packing a mass greater than that of our Sun into a body […]
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Abnormally High Alcohol and Mystery Heat Source Detected on Comet Wirtanen
Study Reveals Latest Details of Comet 46P/Wirtanen’s Chemical Composition Maunakea, Hawaiʻi – Comet 46P/Wirtanen was releasing an unusual amount of alcohol as it made its historic flyby of Earth two and a half years ago. That’s one of the findings from the latest published study comet detectives conducted after observing 46P/Wirtanen with W. M. Keck […]
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New, Third Type of Supernova Observed
Maunakea, Hawaiʻi – An international team of astronomers has captured the very first evidence of a new type of supernova. The discovery confirms a prediction made four decades ago and could lead to new insights into the life and death of stars. It also sheds new light on the thousand-year mystery of the supernova that […]
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30-year Stellar Survey Cracks Mysteries of Galaxy’s Giant Planets
Maunakea, Hawaiʻi – Current and former astronomers from the University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy (IfA) have wrapped up a massive collaborative study that set out to determine if most solar systems in the universe are similar to our own. With the help of W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea in Hawaiʻi, the 30-year planetary […]
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Seeing Quadruple
Machine-learning Methods Lead to Discovery of Rare “Quadruply Imaged Quasars” That Can Help Solve Cosmological Puzzles Maunakea, Hawaiʻi – With the help of machine-learning techniques, a team of astronomers has discovered a dozen quasars that have been warped by a naturally occurring cosmic “lens” and split into four similar images. Quasars are extremely luminous cores […]
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The Most Distant Radio Beacon in the Early Universe
Astronomers Discover the Most Distant Radio-loud Quasar Currently Known Maunakea, Hawaii – An international team of astronomers has pinpointed the most distant radio-bright quasar known so far. Using various telescopes around the world, including W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea in Hawaii, the research team led by the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy and the […]
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A ‘super-puff’ planet like no other
An Université de Montréal-led team of astronomers discovers that the core mass of exoplanet WASP-107b is much lower than previously thought possible for a gas-giant planet. Maunakea, Hawaii – The core mass of the giant exoplanet WASP-107b is much lower than what was thought necessary to build up the immense gas envelope surrounding giant planets like […]
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The Earliest Supermassive Black Hole and Quasar in the Universe
Maunakea Observatories Provide Key Observations The most distant quasar known has been discovered. The quasar, seen just 670 million years after the Big Bang, is 1000 times more luminous than the Milky Way, and is powered by the earliest known supermassive black hole, which weighs in at more than 1.6 billion times the mass of […]
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Astronomers Measure Enormous Planet Lurking Far From Its Star
Gas Giant Takes 218 Days to Complete its Orbit Maunakea, Hawaii – Scientists aren’t usually able to measure the size of gigantic planets, like Jupiter or Saturn, which are far from the stars they orbit. But a UC Riverside-led team has done it. The planet is roughly five times heavier than Jupiter, hence its nickname […]
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