News
News
LASER VISION GIVES NEW EYES TO KECK TELESCOPE
MAUNA KEA, Hawaii (September 17th, 2004) The Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics system at the W. M. Keck Observatory is exceeding performance expectations and is poised to revolutionize many fields of astronomy. The new guide star system, the only one of its kind on a very large telescope, allows astronomers to use adaptive optics to […]
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HAWAII SELECTED FOR PRESTIGIOUS NATIONAL EDUCATION PROGRAM
MAUNA KEA, Hawaii (September 8th, 2004) Hawaii has been selected as one of 13 national sites for the Journey through the Universe program run by the Challenger Center for Space Science Education. In partnership with the Hawaii State Department of Education, the University of Hawaii at Hilo and the Keck and Gemini Observatories, the proposal […]
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KECK HELPS FIND NEW CLASS OF PLANET
MAUNA KEA, Hawaii (August 31st, 2004) Astronomers announced today the first discovery of a new class of planets beyond our solar system about 10 to 20 times the size of Earth – far smaller than any previously detected. The planets make up a new class of Neptune-sized extrasolar planets. In addition, one of the new […]
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EARLY FINDINGS ABOUT THE GALACTIC CENTER TO BE PRESENTED AT KECK SCIENCE MEETING
MAUNA KEA, Hawaii (August 27th, 2004) New images of the galactic center will be presented at the 2004 Keck Science Meeting on September 17 at the UCLA Campus in Los Angeles. The new pictures clearly show hot plasma material being devoured by a black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, about 24,000 […]
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KECK CONFIRMS TRANSIT PLANET
MAUNA KEA, Hawaii (August 24th, 2004) Fifteen years ago, the largest telescopes in the world had yet to locate a planet orbiting another star. Today telescopes no larger than those available in department stores are proving capable of spotting previously unknown worlds. A newfound planet detected by a small, 4-inch-diameter telescope demonstrates that we are […]
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SHARPEST IMAGE EVER OBTAINED OF A CIRCUMSTELLAR DISK REVEALS SIGNS OF YOUNG PLANETS
MAUNA KEA, Hawaii (August 12th, 2004) The sharpest image ever taken of a dust disk around another star has revealed structures in the disk which are signs of unseen planets. Dr. Michael Liu, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy, has acquired high resolution images of the nearby star AU Microscopii (AU […]
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NASA ISSUES DRAFT EIS
MAUNA KEA, Hawaii (August 1st, 2004) ACTION: Notice of availability of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Outrigger Telescopes Project. SUMMARY: Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended (NEPA) (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), the Council on Environmental Quality Regulations for Implementing the Procedural Provisions of NEPA (40 CFR […]
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HAWAII STUDENTS STAND ON SHOULDERS OF GIANTS
KAMUELA, Hawaii (June 30th, 2004) In a science lab deep in a basement on the University of Hawaii-Hilo campus, 17 college students cluster around two slide projectors at the front of a darkened classroom-turned-laboratory. As members of the inaugural class of the Big Island Akamai Observatory Short Course, they are presenting their discoveries and conclusions […]
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SCIENTIST FROM UH HELPS NASA GET PHOTOS OF ‘WILD 2’
MAUNA KEA, Hawaii (April 6th, 2004) A University of Hawaii astronomer’s observations with the Keck telescope on Mauna Kea enabled the NASA spacecraft Stardust to get closer to comet Wild 2 than it planned in a Jan. 2 flyby. As a result, images of the comet are among the best ever recorded, astronomers said. The […]
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HUBBLE AND KECK TEAM UP TO FIND FARTHEST KNOWN GALAXY
KAMUELA, Hawaii (February 15th, 2004) A team of astronomers may have discovered the most distant galaxy in the universe. Located an estimated 13 billion light-years away, the object is being viewed at a time only 750 million years after the big bang, when the universe was barely 5 percent of its current age. The primeval […]
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