Media
Cosmic Videos
Astronomy Talk: Dwarf Galaxies, Dark Matter, and the Milky Way
Guest Speaker: Marla Geha Director, Yale Telescope Resources Professor, Astronomy Department, Yale University Dozens of small galaxies have been discovered orbiting our Milky Way galaxy over the past decade. These “ultra-faint” galaxies are less luminous than any other known galaxy, and are several million times fainter than the Milky Way itself. W. M. Keck Observatory […]
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Astronomy Talk: Hunting for the Most Distant Galaxies in the Universe
Guest Speaker: Taylor Hutchison Graduate Student Texas A&M University We understand very little about the first galaxies in the universe whose light has traveled over 12 billion years to reach our telescopes. The early universe was a much darker place, filled with neutral gas blocking starlight from traveling far from its source. However, some light […]
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Astronomy Talk With Keck Observatory (Virtual): The Surface of Europa: A Window to the Ocean Below
Jupiter’s moon Europa is a prime target for exploring habitability in the Solar System. Beneath a comparatively thin ice shell, Europa harbors a global, salty, liquid-water ocean that is likely in contact with a rocky seafloor. Its geologically young, fractured surface suggests a history of exchange between the ocean and surface environments, such that the […]
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Astronomy Talk: A Planet Not Our Own
Guest Speaker: Elizabeth Tasker Associate Professor Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Institute of Space and Astronautical Sciences (ISAS) We thought we understood the planets of our solar system until we discovered new worlds beyond our own Sun – planets the size of Jupiter with orbits completed in an Earth day, planets with two suns in […]
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Astronomy Talk: Keck Observatory And The Ongoing Exoplanet Revolution
Guest Speaker: Chas Beichman Executive Director NASA Exoplanet Science Institute (NExScI) The exoplanet revolution began in 1995 with the Nobel Prize-winning discovery of a “Hot Jupiter” orbiting the sun-like star 51 Pegasi. Thousands of planets have since been detected in the succeeding two decades, many of them either found by or validated with Keck Observatory. […]
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Astronomy Talk with Keck Observatory (Virtual): Advances in Keck Instrumentation and Future Discovery
The W. M. Keck Observatory telescopes are among the most scientifically productive on Earth. The two 10-meter optical/infrared telescopes on the summit of Maunakea on the Island of Hawaii feature a suite of advanced instruments including imagers, multi-object spectrographs, high-resolution spectrographs, integral-field spectrometers, and world-leading laser guide star adaptive optics systems. With support from the […]
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Astronomy Talk: Illuminating the Origins of the Universe’s Fastest Explosions
Guest Speaker: Wen-fai Fong Assistant Professor Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University When we look at the night sky, we see a static universe. However, astronomical observational surveys have revealed that our universe is, in fact, ever-changing. This “transient” sky is owed to a myriad of cosmic events. While many sources of transient emission […]
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Astronomy Talk: Modern Astronomy on Maunakea
Guest Speaker: Bob McLaren Interim Director University of Hawai`i, Institute for Astronomy Astronomy on Maunakea originated in community efforts to revive the Hawaii Island economy following the 1960 tsunami that devastated Hilo. It quickly acquired governmental support, especially from Governor John Burns. The University of Hawai`i took a leading role, commissioning the UH 2.2-meter Telescope […]
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Astronomy Talk: The NIRSPEC Upgrade for Keck: Enhancing observations from the solar system to exoplanets and beyond
Guest Speaker: Emily Martin National Science Foundation Astronomy & Physics Fellow, UC Santa Cruz The NIRSPEC instrument upgrade was completed in December 2018, just in time to observe the fly-by of a near-Earth comet. Dr. Martin will discuss details of the NIRSPEC upgrade, from the new detectors and optics, to the repairs of 20-year-old parts. […]
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Astronomy Talk: When Machines Take Over: Astronomy in the 21st Century
Professor X describes the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and its many influences on modern astronomy. These range from automating analysis of billions of galaxies to detecting the unknown phenomena that hide within the night sky. AI will also revolutionize the approaches used to conduct and operate our telescopes, including Keck Observatory. Guest Speaker J. […]
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