Subscribe Super-Earth Detected in Habitable Zone of Nearby Star
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February 2, 2012
Santa Cruz, CA—An international team of scientists has discovered a potentially habitable super-Earth orbiting a nearby star. With an orbital period of about 28 days and a minimum mass 4.5 times that of the Earth, the planet orbits within the star’s “habitable zone,” where temperatures are neither...
Keck Observatory Astronomer Wins Top Award
January 20, 2012
A Keck Observatory astronomer who led the way to the discovery of a super-massive black hole at the center of our galaxy has been recognized this week with the 2012 Crafoord Prize in Astronomy, an award almost as prestigious for astronomers as a Nobel Prize. “This is a big one. I’m thrilled,”...
Most Distant Dwarf Galaxy Detected
January 18, 2012
Kamuela, HI—Scientists have long struggled to detect the dim dwarf galaxies that orbit our own galaxy. So it came as a surprise on Jan. 18 when a team of astronomers using Keck II telescope’s adaptive optics has announced the discovery of a dwarf galaxy halfway across the universe. The new...
Smallest Solar System Found
January 9, 2012
KAMUELA, HI – For years the search for exoplanets has largely been like Gulliver’s visit to Brobdingnag: colossal systems of giant gas planets orbiting mammoth stars. But astronomers have finally landed on the shores of Lilliput. They have found a tiny star with three puny planets, each smaller...
Keck & Subaru Telescopes Find Rare Galaxy at Dawn of Time
December 21, 2011
Synopsis: • The galaxy GN-108036 is one of the most distant objects ever found in the universe. • Galaxies like GN-108036 may be responsible for ending the universe’s early “Dark Age.” • The Keck II Telescope was used to confirm the distance and age of the galaxy after it was spotted with the...
Kepler, Keck Telescopes Discover Earth-Size Exoplanets
December 20, 2011
NASA’s Kepler mission, aided by the Keck I Telescope, has discovered the first Earth-size planets orbiting a Sun-like star outside our solar system. The planets, called Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f, are too close to their star to be in the so-called habitable zone where liquid water could exist on a...
Keck Telescope Creator To Receive 2012 Franklin Medal
December 19, 2011
The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia has announced that Jerry Nelson, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, will receive the 2012 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Electrical Engineering. Nelson is internationally renowned as a developer of innovative...
VIDEO: Oodles of Exoplanets
December 16, 2011
This is the video of a Dec. 8, 2011, Keck Astronomy Talk at the Kahilu Theatre in Waimea-Kamuela, Hawaii. The talk is entitled “Oodles of Exoplanets: The Search for Other Earths,” by Greg Laughlin, an astronomer at the University of California at Santa Cruz. NOTE: There is an audio problem at...
Astronomers Find New Clues to Supernova Origins
December 14, 2011
Synopsis: Astronomers have taken a big step forward in identifying the unseen partners of stars that blow up and make the universe’s “standard candle” supernovas. Observations by both Keck telescopes played key roles in the new discoveries. These standard candles, Type Ia supernovas, were used...
New Goldilocks Planet Detected
December 6, 2011
Washington, D.C.—The Keck I telescope has been used to establish the mass of a planet in the habitable zone around a star—that’s the region where liquid water could exist on a planet’s surface. The newly confirmed exoplanet, Kepler-22b, is the smallest yet found to orbit in the middle of the...
