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News
A Hundred Million Suns
The Most Complete Portrait of a Supernova Ever Maunakea, Hawaiʻi – Accounts of supernovae – exploding stars – go back thousands of years, and while we know today these events create the building blocks of life itself, there are still unanswered questions about the conditions that cause a star to explode. Researchers from the Weizmann […]
Read More >WASP-69b: New Images Reveal Exoplanet’s Comet-Like Tail is Surprisingly Longer Than Previously Observed
Maunakea, Hawai‘i – New data from W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawaiʻi Island confirms exoplanet WASP-69b, known for its escaping atmosphere, is forming a comet-like tail that is even longer than previously observed. Named WASP-69b, scientists have studied this Jupiter-sized planet in the past, focusing on its escaping atmosphere and observing only a small […]
Read More >Space Oddity: Uncovering the Origin of the Universe’s Rare Radio Circles
Written by Michelle Franklin, APR Director of Communications, Physical Sciences at University of California, San Diego Maunakea, Hawai‘i– It’s not every day astronomers say, “What is that?” After all, most observed astronomical phenomena are known: stars, planets, black holes and galaxies. But in 2019 the newly completed ASKAP (Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder) telescope picked […]
Read More >W. M. Keck Observatory Appoints Rich Matsuda as Director
International search confirms local-born executive to lead the Observatory Maunakea, Hawaiʻi – The W. M. Keck Observatory today announced the appointment of Rich Matsuda as its next director, effective January 1, 2024. “With the support of our Board of Directors, our Observatory has been making a pivot for the last several years, turning toward a […]
Read More >Strange New Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient has Astronomers in Awe
Maunakea, Hawai‘i – Astronomers are baffled by a series of strange, extremely bright repetitive flares that lasted for months – the first phenomenon of its kind ever seen. This mysterious and rare event is consistent with a Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient (LFBOT). Typically, LFBOTs explode once and fade within a few days. However, this […]
Read More >Swinburne and W. M. Keck Observatory Form Historic Scientific Partnership to Unlock New Era of Space Discovery for Australia and the U.S.
Swinburne University of Technology has become the first organization outside of the United States to join the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaiʻi as a scientific partner. The new scientific partnership builds on Swinburne’s 15-year association with the Observatory through a strategic agreement with Caltech under which Swinburne researchers have been able to demonstrate outstanding […]
Read More >Uranus Aurora Discovery Offers Clues to Habitable Icy Worlds
Maunakea, Hawaiʻi – The presence of an infrared aurora on the cold, outer planet of Uranus has been confirmed for the first time by University of Leicester astronomers. The discovery could shed light on the mysteries behind the magnetic fields of the planets of our solar system, and even on whether distant worlds might support life. Using […]
Read More >Record-breaking Fast Radio Burst is Most Distant Ever Detected
Maunakea, Hawaiʻi – Scientists have discovered an eight-billion-year-old fast radio burst (FRB) – the most ancient and distant located to date. A global team that includes UC Santa Cruz Professor of Astronomy J. Xavier Prochaska, an expert in spectroscopy, and was led by Macquarie University’s Stuart Ryder and Swinburne University of Technology’s Associate Professor Ryan […]
Read More >Cosmic Web Lights Up in the Darkness of Space
Keck Cosmic Web Imager Offers Best Glimpse Yet of the Filamentous Network That Connects Galaxies Maunakea, Hawaiʻi – Like rivers feeding oceans, streams of gas nourish galaxies throughout the cosmos. But these streams, which make up a part of the so-called cosmic web, are very faint and hard to see. While astronomers have known about […]
Read More >NASA Selects Groups to Guide ‘Habitable Worlds Observatory’ Activities, Invites Community Participation
NASA has selected 56 individuals to participate in groups that will guide maturation activities for the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). HWO is a concept for a NASA flagship mission, as recommended by the 2020 Astrophysics Decadal Survey, that would pursue a breadth of astrophysics goals, including searching for and characterizing potentially habitable planets beyond our […]
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