Search
Search Results:
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 […]
Read More >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 […]
Read More >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 […]
Read More >W. M. Keck Observatory Achieves First Light with Keck Cosmic Reionization Mapper
Maunakea, Hawaiʻi – W. M. Keck Observatory is pleased to announce its newest instrument, the Keck Cosmic Reionization Mapper (KCRM), has successfully achieved “first light,” marking its first time ‘seeing’ the universe from Maunakea on Hawaiʻi Island. On Sunday, June 4, KCRM team members from Keck Observatory and Caltech captured a first-light image of the […]
Read More >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 […]
Read More >Keck Observatory Donor Salon Talk: A Stretching Gas Cloud and Other Dusty Objects that Orbit Close to the Galactic Black Hole
Guest Speaker Randy Campbell Science Operations Lead W. M. Keck Observatory The Supermassive Black Hole (SBH) at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy is surrounded by a dense cluster of stars embedded in a complex structure of gas and dust. Randy will unveil recent study results on the more prominent dust and gas […]
Read More >Keck Observatory Donor Salon Talk: Shadow the Scientists – Research as a Spectator Sport
Guest Speaker Dr. Puragra Guhathakurta Distinguished Professor, Astronomer & Department Chair, Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics University of California Santa Cruz The Shadow the Scientists (StS) initiative out of UC Santa Cruz offers the opportunity for students anywhere in the world to eavesdrop via Zoom on professional astronomers as they carry out observations with […]
Read More >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 […]
Read More >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 […]
Read More >Star Eats Planet, Brightens Dramatically
For the first time, astronomers have caught a star in the act of swallowing a planet whole.
Read More >