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METHANE CLOUDS DISCOVERED AT THE SOUTH POLE OF TITAN
MAUNA KEA, Hawaii (December 18th, 2002) Teams of astronomers at the California Institute of Technology and the University of California at Berkeley have discovered methane clouds near the south pole of Titan. Titan is Saturn’s largest moon, larger than the planet Mercury, and is the only moon in our solar system with a thick atmosphere. […]
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EXCEPTIONALLY BRIGHT ERUPTION ON IO RIVALS LARGEST IN SOLAR SYATEM
MAUNA KEA, Hawaii (November 13th, 2002) Routine monitoring of volcanic activity on Jupiter’s moon Io, now possible through advanced adaptive optics on the Keck II telescope in Hawaii, has turned up the largest eruption to date on Io’s surface or in the solar system. The eruption took place in February 2001, though image analysis was […]
Read More >KECK OPENS FOR COMPETITIVE ACCESS
MAUNA KEA, Hawaii (October 10th, 2002) All U.S. astronomers will gain competitive access to the twin 10-meter Keck telescopes starting early next year via an innovative new National Science Foundation program administered by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO). Known as the Telescope System Instrumentation Program (TSIP), this new initiative will strengthen the relationship between […]
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IO’S VOLCANIC SURFACE CAPTURED IN FULL MOTION
MAUNA KEA, Hawaii (June 3rd, 2002) The highest resolution infrared global images ever taken of Jupiter’s volcanic moon, Io, are now available from the W.M. Keck Observatory and UC Berkeley in a unique animated movie and 3D Java applet. The images provide a complete survey of Io’s surface during one full rotation and demonstrate the […]
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EVIDENCE FOR YOUNG PLANETS FOUND
MAUNA KEA, Hawaii (April 11th, 2002) Two independent teams of astronomers are presenting the discovery of new features in an edge-on disk around the nearby star Beta Pictoris at the Gillett Symposium on “Debris Disks and the Formation of Planets” in Tucson, Arizona. Infrared images from the W. M. Keck Observatory reveal an important clue […]
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WORLD’S LARGEST TELESCOPE CREATES A VIRTUAL STAR OVER HAWAII
MAUNA KEA, Hawaii (January 4th, 2002) The W. M. Keck Observatory, home to the world’s two largest telescopes, and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have created a “virtual” guide star that will greatly increase the ability of the Keck II telescope using adaptive optics to resolve fine details of astronomical objects. Installed in 1999, […]
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BROWN DWARF FOUND AROUND NEARBY, SUN-LIKE STAR
MAUNA KEA, Hawaii (January 1st, 2002) Astronomers using adaptive optics on the Gemini North and Keck telescopes have taken an image of a brown dwarf orbiting a nearby star similar to the Sun. The faint companion is separated from its parent star by less than the distance between the Sun and the planet Uranus and […]
Read More >TWO NEW PLANETARY SYSTEMS DISCOVERED
MAUNA KEA, Hawaii (January 9th, 2001) The world’s leading team of planet-hunting astronomers announced today at the winter meeting of the American Astronomical Society the discovery of two multi-planet systems that are among the most bizarre planetary systems found to date. One system calls into the question the very meaning of the term “planet,” said […]
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KECK IMAGES OF NEPTUNE BEST EVER CAPTURED
MAUNA KEA, Hawaii (October 1st, 2000) Astronomers observing with the adaptive optics instrument on the Keck II Telescope have obtained the best pictures yet of the planet Neptune, showing an upper atmosphere rich with moving features such as vortices, waves and narrowly spaced bands of clouds similar to those present around Jupiter. The team – […]
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KECK ASTRONOMERS OBSERVE ACCELERATION OF STARS AT CENTER OF MILKY WAY GALAXY
MAUNA KEA, Hawaii (September 21st, 2000) In an historic first, astronomers from the University of California-Los Angeles have observed acceleration in the velocities of individual stars orbiting the gigantic black hole at the center of our galaxy. The astronomers, led by Andrea Ghez, UCLA professor of physics and astronomy, reported on five years of Keck […]
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