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Science News
‘Champagne Supernovae’ Challenges Ideas About How Supernovae Work
Pasadena, Calif. (September 20th, 2006) An international team of astronomers at the California Institute of Technology, University of Toronto, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have discovered a supernova more massive than previously believed possible. Observations of the supernova were obtained at the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope and the Keck telescope, both located on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. […]
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W. M. Keck Observatory Science Meeting Takes Place September 15 at UC Irvine
Kamuela (September 5th, 2006) Science reporters are invited to attend the annual Keck Observatory Science Meeting on Friday, Sept. 15 at University of California, Irvine. The meeting features recent results from the Keck I and Keck II 10-meter telescopes on Mauna Kea. The meeting also provides reports on existing instrumentation and the status of future […]
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Elegant spiral arms betray existence of massive binary stars within bright star cluster
Kamuela, Hawaii (August 22nd, 2006) – The five red stars at the heart of the Quintuplet Cluster – one of the most massive clusters in the Milky Way Galaxy – may all be dusty pinwheels, a strange but beautiful type of nebula only recently recognized. Two of the five have been imaged in the near […]
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Internship Program Wraps with Student Symposium at ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center
Hilo, Hawaii (August 2nd, 2006) – The ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center in Hilo, which is dedicated to showcasing astronomy and culture in Hawaii, was an ideal venue for the 2006 Akamai Observatory Internship Symposium on Friday, July 28. In the center’s planetarium, usually a venue for celestial star shows, 13 stars from the educational universe were […]
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Keck telescope captures Jupiter’s Red Spot Jr. as it zips past planet’s Great Red Spot
Kamuela, Hawaii (July 29th, 2006) – Astronomers from the University of California, Berkeley, and the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii this month snapped high-resolution near-infrared images of the Great Red Spot, a persistent, high-pressure storm on Jupiter, as a smaller storm, Red Spot Jr., breezed by it on its race around the planet. The […]
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Three-telescope interferometer shows patchy red giants are common fate of stars like Sun
Kamuela, Hawaii (July 18th, 2006) – As astronomers increasingly link two telescopes as interferometers to reveal greater detail of distant stars, a Keck Observatory astronomer is showing the power of linking three or even more telescopes together. Astronomer Sam Ragland used Arizona’s Infrared-Optical Telescope Array (IOTA) of three linked telescopes to obtain unprecedented detail of […]
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Keck Observatory video wins 2006 Telly Award for excellence in video production
Kamuela, Hawaii (July 12th, 2006) – An educational video produced by the W. M. Keck Observatory and the production company Earlybird & Friends has won a Silver Telly Award, the highest of the Telly Awards given annually to honor outstanding local, regional and cable TV programs, films and commercials. The video, titled “The Kecks of […]
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NSF Partnership Funds Instrument for World’s Largest Telescope
Kamuela, Hawaii (May 25th, 2006) The W. M. Keck Observatory and the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced that $5 million of NSF funding has been granted over the next four years to design and construct a major new capability for the Keck I telescope. It was also announced that a matching gift of $5 million […]
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Taft E. Armandroff Appointed Director for W. M. Keck Observatory
Kamuela (February 2nd, 2006) The Board of the California Association for Research in Astronomy (CARA), the governing body for the W. M. Keck Observatory, is pleased to announce that Dr. Taft E. Armandroff has been appointed director of the Observatory, effective July 1, 2006. He will succeed Dr. Frederic H. Chaffee, who will end his […]
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Trojan Asteroid Patroclus: Comet in Disguise?
Mauna Kea (February 1st, 2006) Like the hollow wooden horse hiding Greek warriors in the Trojan War, could an entire population of asteroids be masquerading as comets? Observations of the binary Trojan asteroid (617) Patroclus taken at the W. M. Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea have astronomers wondering if asteroids caught in the gravitationally neutral […]
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