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Cosmic Matters
“I Am Oz, The Great and Powerful…”
When the Wizard of Oz roared that line, he was hidden behind a curtain. He knew all too well that he was not particularly great nor very powerful, and wanted no one to find out (a scheme foiled by that heroic terrier Toto). The opposite problem exists at the W. M. Keck Observatory. There is […]
Read More >Weight-Watchers Guide to the Universe: Obese Galaxies Aren’t Dieting
Humans are not alone in their struggle against an increasing waistline. Astronomers believe that galaxies too put on weight throughout their lives, growing not only by consuming hydrogen gas—which is then converted to stars—but also by cannibalizing other galaxies. It’s a galaxy-eat-galaxy cosmos, but the big surprise is that many galaxies seem to be growing […]
Read More >NSF Awards $1.72 Million to Improve Keck I Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics
This image shows the Keck I laser, which is part of the telescope’s Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics system. The laser is launched from the center of the telescope behind the secondary mirror. Credit: Andrew Cooper, WMKO. The W. M. Keck Observatory has received a $1.72 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to […]
Read More >Reverse Cosmic Lens Advances Quasar Studies
This image of the first-ever foreground quasar (blue) lensing a background galaxy (red) was taken with the Keck II telescope and its NIRC-2 instrument using laser guide star adaptive optics. Discovering more of these lenses will allow astronomers to determine the masses of quasars’ host galaxies. Credit: F. Courbin, G. Meylan, S. G. Djorgovski, et […]
Read More >Keck Observatory in the Community
Steve Doyle, an instrument and optics technician at the Observatory, checks out one of the underwater robots entered in the 2010 International R.O.V. competition. Credit: Baron Sekiya, Hawaii 24/7.com. David Lynn pulls his mask over his eyes, repositions his SCUBA tank and sinks below the water’s surface. While he could be diving anywhere along the […]
Read More >Hana Hou! features Keck Observatory
Hana Hou! editor at large Julia Steele visits the Keck Observatory and stands in front of the 10-meter Keck II telescope during her trip to research the work being done on Mauna Kea. Credit: Ashley Yeager, WMKO. In “View from the Top,” the cover story of the June/July 2010 Hana Hou!, editor Julia Steele explores […]
Read More >Zooming in on Infant Planetary Systems
Like a raindrop forming in a cloud, a star forms in a diffuse gas cloud in deep space. As the star grows, its gravitational pull draws in dust and gas from the surrounding molecular cloud to form a swirling “protoplanetary disk.” This disk eventually further consolidates to form planets, moons, asteroids and comets. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. […]
Read More >Keck Observatory Project Scientist wins 2010 Kavli Prize
Jerry Nelson, designer of the Keck telescopes, stands in front of the Keck I dome. Credit: Roger Ressmeyer/CORBIS. Jerry Nelson, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and designer of the revolutionary segmented-mirror Keck telescopes will share the $1 million Kavli Prize in Astrophysics with two other researchers for their innovations in the […]
Read More >Keck Astronomer Wins Gruber Prize for Cosmology
Charles Steidel, the Lee A. DuBridge Professor of Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology, is the recipient of the 2010 Cosmology Prize of the Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation in recognition of his revolutionary studies using Keck Observatory of the most distant galaxies in the Universe. Credit: California Institute of Technology. Charles Steidel was […]
Read More >A Mirror’s Perfect Reflection
If you think washing the mirrors and windows in your home is a daunting task, imagine cleaning two of the largest light-collecting surfaces in the astronomy world—the twin 10-meter Keck telescope mirrors. Keck Observatory’s two primary mirrors are each comprised of 36 hexagonal segments. Each segment is 1.8 meters, or 6 feet, in diameter, weighs […]
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