By Dr. Fred Chaffee
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| Photo: Inspiration from the cosmos comes from light echoes of the red
supergiant star V838 Moncerotis, 20,000 light years away at the outer
edges of our Milky Way. Photo courtesy of the Hubble Space Telescope. |
From the earliest days of recorded history, through the time
of the ancient Greeks and the early Polynesian navigators to
the present day, human beings of every culture have gazed at
the night sky with awe and wonder, pondering many of the same
questions: What are all those points of light? Where did they
come from? What is their ultimate fate? How do I fit in to it
all? These are profound questions that for millennia have captured
the imagination of philosophers, scientists, religious thinkers,
and lay people alike.
From the time of Galileo, the first man to study the heavens
with a telescope nearly 400 years ago, to the present, astronomers
have built larger and larger telescopes in their quest to answer
such questions. By the late 20th century, these telescopes seemed
to have reached a technological limit. Without a technical breakthrough,
telescopes with mirrors larger than about 20 feet across were
beyond our grasp.
Fully aware that such a breakthrough was needed, in 1985 the
Directors of the W. M. Keck Foundation took the unprecedented
risk of funding the construction of a revolutionary new telescope-the
world's largest-in Hawai'i, using technology that many felt
was too radical and doomed to failure. Now, 18 years later,
the world's two largest telescopes, both funded largely by the
Foundation, stand majestically on Mauna Kea. The Keck Foundation's
faith has been richly rewarded: the telescopes bearing their
name have enabled astronomers using them to transform our understanding
of the cosmos-from our own solar system to the farthest reaches
of the Universe.
Ten years ago, shortly after the first Keck telescope became
operational, only nine planets were known to exist--those orbiting
our sun that we learned about as school children. Today, thanks
to a great extent to observations from the Keck I telescope,
the "planet count" exceeds 100, with "super-earths" and larger
planets having been detected around 70 stars, some as far away
as 250 light-years (1500 trillion miles). We are hopeful that
ten years hence the Keck Interferometer-by combining the light
from multiple telescopes-will have allowed us to actually image
some of these planets and even to study their atmospheres for
signs of life-supporting conditions. Humankind's age-old question
of whether we are alone in the Universe may be on the verge
of yielding an answer.
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| Photo: Young trapeze artists simulate the
energy produced by gamma-ray bursters in the recent Hoku
Project Concert at Kahilu Theatre in April 2006. Read
more on the main page. Photo
courtesy of Sarah Anderson. |
Moving much farther away than these relatively near-by, planet-encircled
stars, the Keck telescopes were also instrumental in solving
a quarter-century-old astrophysical puzzle: the nature of bizarre
objects known as gamma-ray bursters. First detected by satellites
in the 1970s, these mysterious objects defied understanding
until observations at Keck in 1997 recorded their "fingerprints"
(what astronomers call "spectra") for the first time. These
fingerprints led us to realize that gamma-ray bursters are at
"cosmological distances"-far beyond our solar system, far beyond
our home galaxy, far beyond even our "local group" of galaxies-billions
of light years away. Furthermore they allowed us to infer how
much energy is actually generated during an outburst that can
last only a matter of seconds. This energy turned out to be
prodigious; some gamma-ray bursters emit more energy in those
few seconds than the entire rest of the Universe with its billions
of galaxies (each with billions of individual stars) put together!
We now believe this energy is produced by stars in their death-throes,
exploding with unimaginable power.
Finally, at the very "edge" of the known Universe, observations
at Keck have detected galaxies already formed when the cosmos
was a mere 800,000,000 years old--only 6% of its present age.
That galaxies could form so early challenges all our theories
about the young Universe.
Perhaps most perplexing of all is what Science Magazine called
the "Breakthrough Discovery of the Year" in 1998. Data from
distant exploding stars ("supernovae") suggest that the Universe
is accelerating-expanding faster today than it did shortly after
the Big Bang that, to astronomers, marks the beginning. Such
an acceleration flies in the face of all theories, and astronomers
have been driven to postulate the existence of something called
"dark energy" to produce this mysterious repulsive force that
counters gravity on huge scales. If this discovery continues
to withstand future scrutiny-and it will be intensely scrutinized
in the years ahead-it could be one of the most important discoveries
in the history of modern astronomy.
Discoveries like these are driven entirely by human curiosity
-- our deep-seated need as cognizant beings to understand ourselves
and our origins. The scope and nobility of the search is what
makes astronomy unique, what draws young and old, scientist
and layman alike, to wonder about questions beyond the everyday.
The Keck Observatory Vision reflects the breadth of what we
do. We envisage "A world in which all humankind is inspired
and united by the pursuit of knowledge of the infinite variety
and richness of the Universe." Our Mission in pursuit of that
vision is to "advance the frontiers of astronomy and share our
discoveries to inspire the imagination of all."
We see inspiration in the eyes of school children all over the
Big Island who visit our Waimea headquarters and whose schools
we visit frequently. We see it in the eyes of the students who
participate in our intern programs. We see it in those who attend
our public lecture series in Waimea. We see it in dedicated
Keck employees. We see it in astronomers who come from all over
the world to explore the Universe with the Keck telescopes.
We in Hawai'i are privileged to be at the very center of astronomical
research on Planet Earth. It is an exciting journey on which
all are welcome! 
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