Media
Cosmic Videos
Keck Observatory Donor Salon: Celebrating 175 Years of Neptune: A Story From Its Discovery to the Present
Guest Speaker: Dr. Imke De Pater Professor Emerita and Professor of the Graduate School Departments of Astronomy and of Earth and Planetary Science at the University of California at Berkeley Neptune was discovered on September 24, 1846 (~175 years ago). Since its discovery, we have learned much about the planet itself, its moons and ring […]
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Astronomy Talk: The Year(s) Ahead: What’s on the Horizon for Astronomy?
Guest Speaker John O’Meara Chief Scientist W. M. Keck Observatory 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 farther in the […]
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Keck Observatory Donor Salon: Broadening Our Horizons With the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
Guest Speaker: Dr. Gregory Wirth Principal Systems Engineer Ball Aerospace What’s the true nature of dark energy and dark matter, those invisible forces that both bind together and may ultimately tear apart the Universe? And how common are solar systems like our own? Astronomers have made important progress in answering these key questions using Keck […]
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Keck Observatory Donor Salon: The Keck Discovery Engine: A Transformative New Capability for Science
Guest Speaker: Dr. John O’Meara Chief Scientist W.M. Keck Observatory Keck has maintained leadership in astronomy for three decades because of the creativity of its community, the nimbleness of its observing model, and the power of its telescope, instrumentation, and site on Maunakea. As Keck enters the era of even larger telescopes on the ground, […]
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Astronomy Talk: Planet 9 From Outer Space
Guest Speaker: Mike Brown Director Caltech Center for Comparative Planetary Evolution (The Guy Who Killed Pluto) 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 list, suggesting that Planet […]
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Keck Observatory Donor Salon: Imaging Other Worlds: Today and Tomorrow
Guest Speaker: Dr. Michael Liu Astronomer University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy Direct imaging is a key method to study planets around other stars, a.k.a. exoplanets. Thanks to both astronomical and instrumental advances, the largest ground-based telescopes can now obtain images and spectra of gas-giant (Jupiter-like) planets. Dr. Liu will share what these studies with […]
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Astronomy Talk: Where I Explore, Where We Explore From The South Pole To Mars To Exoplanets
Guest Speaker: Christine Moran Deputy Manager NASA Exoplanet Exploration Program, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory 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? How do […]
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Keck Observatory Donor Salon: The World’s Most Powerful Pair of Eyeglasses: Keck Adaptive Optics
Guest Speaker: Dr. Jim Lyke Adaptive Optics Operations Lead Astronomer Keck Observatory Dr. Lyke will give a fun and informative overview of Keck’s productive use of a technology that sharpens its view of the universe. Adaptive Optics (AO) is central to many of Keck’s greatest discoveries. Get ready to enjoy some of Keck’s best images […]
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Keck Observatory Donor Salon: Galaxies Viewed Through Cosmic Magnifying Glasses
Guest Speaker: Dr. Tucker Jones Astronomy Professor University of California at Davis The gravitational field of massive objects distorts space and time, even acting as a “gravitational lens” by deflecting the path of light. This phenomenon serves as a natural magnifying glass to provide unparalleled views of the distant universe. Although strong lens systems are […]
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Astronomy Talk: Lifting the Fog on the Early Universe
Guest Speaker: Steven Finkelstein Associate Professor of Astronomy, Provost’s Teaching Fellow University of Texas at Austin 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 the electrons from […]
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