News
News
EVIDENCE FOR YOUNG PLANETS FOUND
MAUNA KEA, Hawaii (April 11th, 2002) Two independent teams of astronomers are presenting the discovery of new features in an edge-on disk around the nearby star Beta Pictoris at the Gillett Symposium on “Debris Disks and the Formation of Planets” in Tucson, Arizona. Infrared images from the W. M. Keck Observatory reveal an important clue […]
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WORLD’S LARGEST TELESCOPE CREATES A VIRTUAL STAR OVER HAWAII
MAUNA KEA, Hawaii (January 4th, 2002) The W. M. Keck Observatory, home to the world’s two largest telescopes, and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have created a “virtual” guide star that will greatly increase the ability of the Keck II telescope using adaptive optics to resolve fine details of astronomical objects. Installed in 1999, […]
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BROWN DWARF FOUND AROUND NEARBY, SUN-LIKE STAR
MAUNA KEA, Hawaii (January 1st, 2002) Astronomers using adaptive optics on the Gemini North and Keck telescopes have taken an image of a brown dwarf orbiting a nearby star similar to the Sun. The faint companion is separated from its parent star by less than the distance between the Sun and the planet Uranus and […]
Read More >TWO NEW PLANETARY SYSTEMS DISCOVERED
MAUNA KEA, Hawaii (January 9th, 2001) The world’s leading team of planet-hunting astronomers announced today at the winter meeting of the American Astronomical Society the discovery of two multi-planet systems that are among the most bizarre planetary systems found to date. One system calls into the question the very meaning of the term “planet,” said […]
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KECK IMAGES OF NEPTUNE BEST EVER CAPTURED
MAUNA KEA, Hawaii (October 1st, 2000) Astronomers observing with the adaptive optics instrument on the Keck II Telescope have obtained the best pictures yet of the planet Neptune, showing an upper atmosphere rich with moving features such as vortices, waves and narrowly spaced bands of clouds similar to those present around Jupiter. The team – […]
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KECK ASTRONOMERS OBSERVE ACCELERATION OF STARS AT CENTER OF MILKY WAY GALAXY
MAUNA KEA, Hawaii (September 21st, 2000) In an historic first, astronomers from the University of California-Los Angeles have observed acceleration in the velocities of individual stars orbiting the gigantic black hole at the center of our galaxy. The astronomers, led by Andrea Ghez, UCLA professor of physics and astronomy, reported on five years of Keck […]
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U.S. POSTAL SERVICE ISSUES “FAMOUS OBSERVATORY” STAMP SET
On July 9, 2000, the U.S. Postal Service included the distinctive twin domes of Keck in set of six, now available at select post offices and by special order from the U.S. Postal Service.
Read More >UH REGENTS APPROVE MAUNA KEA MASTER PLAN
HONOLULU, Hawaii (June 16th, 2000) The University of Hawai’i Board of Regents today approved a Master Plan for future uses of the Mauna Kea Science Reserve atop the state’s highest mountain. In a separate vote, Regents approved the immediate establishment of the Office of Management – called for in the Master Plan, and administratively placed […]
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KECK ASTRONOMERS DISCOVER PLANETS SMALLER THAN SATURN
MAUNA KEA, Hawaii (March 29th, 2000) With the number of planets discovered orbiting suns beyond our Solar system now at 30 and counting, astronomers at the W.M. Keck Observatory have made an astonishing advance in the hunt for extra-solar planets. In a press conference today (Wednesday, March 29, 2000) at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., […]
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ASTRONOMERS WITNESS SILHOUETTE OF PLANET CROSSING DISTANT STAR
MAUNA KEA, Hawaii (November 7th, 1999) have witnessed for the first time a distant planet passing in front of its star, providing direct and independent confirmation of the existence of extrasolar planets that to date have been inferred only from the wobble of their star. “This is the first independent confirmation of a planet, and […]
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