Events
Events
Upcoming
Truth is Stranger than (Science) Fiction
05:00 pm - 06:30 pm
GUEST SPEAKER: Jessie Christiansen, Astrophysicist, NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at Caltech VIRTUAL ASTRONOMY TALK: We speculated about the existence of planets orbiting other Suns for hundreds, if not thousands of years before their existence was finally confirmed. During that time we invented and depicted many new and now iconic sci-fi worlds – mysterious planets with […]
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AstroDay in East Hawaiʻi Returns May 14
10:00 am - 04:00 pm
Celebrate Big Island Science & Astronomy The Maunakea Observatories’ AstroDay in Hilo is back—and this year, you can attend in person! This annual celebration of Hawaiʻi science and astronomy will feature hands-on activities, games, giveaways, and demonstrations for all ages. Our Keck Observatory staff will be giving away build-your-own spectrograph kits, an instrument astronomers use […]
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Origin of Earth’s Water
05:00 pm - 06:30 pm
GUEST SPEAKER: Karen Meech, Astronomer, Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawai`i at Manoa VIRTUAL ASTRONOMY TALK: No one knows if our solar system, with a planet possessing the necessary ingredients for life within our Sun’s habitable zone, is a cosmic rarity. Nor do we know whether the gas giants in our solar system played a […]
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Planetary Defense at NASA
05:00 pm - 07:00 pm
GUEST SPEAKER: Kelly Fast and Lindley Johnson, Near-Earth Object Observations Program Manager and Planetary Defense Officer, NASA VIRTUAL ASTRONOMY TALK: Near-Earth objects (NEOs) are asteroids and comets that orbit the Sun like the planets, but with orbits that can bring them into Earth’s neighborhood. An asteroid impact is the only natural disaster that could be […]
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Exploring the Ice Giants with Keck Observatory and Other Telescopes
05:00 pm - 07:00 pm
GUEST SPEAKER: Heidi Hammel, Vice President for Science, The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) VIRTUAL ASTRONOMY TALK: During the late 1980s, our understanding of the local ice giants – Uranus and Neptune – was revolutionized by detailed images taken by the Voyager spacecraft. However, those images were static: brief snapshots in time […]
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The Year(s) Ahead: What’s on the Horizon for Astronomy?
05:00 pm - 07:00 pm
GUEST SPEAKER: John O’Meara, Chief Scientist, W. M. Keck Observatory VIRTUAL ASTRONOMY TALK: The coming year promises to be an exciting one for astronomy on the ground and in space. With new instrumentation being delivered to Keck Observatory, and exciting missions like JWST in space, 2022 will deliver transformative new capabilities to astronomy. Looking even […]
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Santa Live!
Here Comes Santa… LIVE! We’re excited to bring Santa to the Waimea community this year as part of a fun, socially safe event to support families in need! Santa Live is a 30-minute interactive drive-in experience with live song and dance performances, a snow machine, and photo op. Santa will broadcast live from the North […]
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Hawaiʻi Science Walk
Welcome to the Hawaiʻi Science Walk! Join scientists from around Hawaiʻi as we explore our island, our world, and the vast expanses of space. Each video describes research being done here in Hawaiʻi that broadens our understanding of our world. Combined, this research helps astronomers using the Maunakea Observatories and the James Webb Space Telescope […]
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Planet 9 From Outer Space
05:00 pm - 06:00 pm
GUEST SPEAKER: Mike Brown, Director, Caltech Center for Comparative Planetary Evolution (The Guy Who Killed Pluto) VIRTUAL ASTRONOMY TALK: In the past 175 years, more than 30 separate astronomers have suggested the existence of a giant planet beyond Neptune. They have always been wrong. In 2016, Dr. Michael Brown and Dr. Konstantin Batygin joined the […]
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Where I Explore, Where We Explore From the South Pole to Mars to Exoplanets
05:00 pm - 06:00 pm
GUEST SPEAKER: Christine Moran, Deputy Manager, NASA Exoplanet Exploration Program, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory VIRTUAL ASTRONOMY TALK: Exploring is fundamental to being human, one of the cornerstones of why we do science, and why Dr. Moran has taken her personal career journey. What was it like living at the South Pole for almost a year? […]
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Lifting the Fog on the Early Universe
05:00 pm - 07:00 pm
GUEST SPEAKER: Steven Finkelstein, Associate Professor of Astronomy, Provost’s Teaching Fellow, University of Texas at Austin VIRTUAL ASTRONOMY TALK: Just after the Big Bang, the universe was filled with a fog of cool hydrogen gas. When the first stars and galaxies began to form, energetic light from these objects heated and ionized this gas, removing […]
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