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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 >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 >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 >Clouds On Neptune Perform a Surprise Disappearing Act
Maunakea, Hawaiʻi – For the first time in nearly three decades of observations, clouds seen on Neptune have all but vanished. Images from 1994 to 2022 of the big blue planet captured from Maunakea on Hawaiʻi Island through the lens of W. M. Keck Observatory, along with views from space via NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope […]
Read More >Two-Faced Star Exposed: Unusual White Dwarf Star is Made of Hydrogen on One Side and Helium on the Other
Maunakea, Hawaiʻi – In a first for white dwarfs, the burnt-out cores of dead stars, astronomers have discovered that at least one member of this cosmic family is two-faced. One side of the white dwarf is composed of hydrogen, while the other is made up of helium. The findings, which include data from the Zwicky […]
Read More >Starlight and the First Black Holes: Researchers Detect the Host Galaxies of Quasars in the Early Universe
Maunakea, Hawaiʻi – An international team of scientists, including Chien-Hsiu Lee, staff astronomer at W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawaiʻi Island, has captured images for the first time of starlight from two massive galaxies hosting actively growing black holes, or quasars, from less than a billion years after the Big Bang. The successful detection […]
Read More >Life After Death: Hawaiʻi Astronomers Find a Planet that Shouldn’t Exist
Maunakea, Hawaiʻi – When our Sun reaches the end of its life, it will expand to 100 times its current size, enveloping the Earth. Many planets in other solar systems face a similar doom as their host stars grow old. But not all hope is lost, as astronomers from the University of Hawaiʻi Institute for […]
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