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Spend The Summer Among the Stars: Internships Available at Observatories on Mauna Kea
Kamuela (January 20th, 2006) The Akamai Observatory Internship Program offers remarkable opportunities to participate in the exciting world of modern astronomy via paid summer internships at Observatories on Mauna Kea. The Akamai program pairs undergraduate university and community college students with engineers and astronomers at Hawaii Island observatories for eight-week project-based internships. The program begins […]
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`OHANA to Link Seven Mauna Kea Telescopes
Mauna Kea (January 13th, 2006) A team of scientists in partnership with the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii have successfully passed the first test in a project that will link the seven largest telescopes on Mauna Kea together to create a gigantic imaging instrument nearly one half mile (800 meters) in diameter. The ‘OHANA […]
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Scientists See Better, Fainter with New Keck Laser Guide Star
Washington D. C. (January 10th, 2006) A new sodium laser is giving 50 times more sky coverage to the atmospheric-correcting technology known as adaptive optics on the Keck II telescope at Mauna Kea, Hawaii. The laser lets scientists explore most of the sky with adaptive optics and gives them the capability to study objects that […]
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GRAIN GROWTH IN ORION NEBULA PROTOPLANETARY DISKS
WASHINGTON, D. C. (January 6th, 2006) New observations of the Orion Nebula at infrared wavelengths reveal that small dust grains located in disks around young stars are growing, taking the initial steps toward forming planets despite bathing in a flood of radiation from highly luminous stars. The properties of dust in disks around young stars […]
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FAINT NEW RING DISCOVERED AROUND URANUS
BERKELEY, Calif. (December 22nd, 2005) Astronomers have made the first ground-based observations of one of two new rings discovered recently around the planet Uranus by the Hubble Space Telescope and announced today. The ground-based detection was conducted with the Near Infrared Camera (NIRC2) using the adaptive optics system on the Keck II telescope atop the […]
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PRECURSOR TO PROTEINS AND DNA FOUND IN STELLAR DISK
MAUNA KEA, Hawaii (December 20th, 2005) Astronomers at W. M. Keck Observatory have found – for the first time – some of the basic compounds necessary to build organic molecules and one of the bases found in DNA within the inner regions of a planet-forming disk. The object, known as “IRS 46,” is located in […]
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HIGH RES IMAGES OF GALACTIC CENTER
UCLA PRESS RELEASE (December 12th, 2005) UCLA astronomers and colleagues published the first high-resolution images of the center of our Milky Way galaxy, including the area surrounding the supermassive black hole, using a new technology at the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii. “Everything is much clearer now,” said Andrea Ghez, UCLA professor of physics and […]
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NEW RESULTS SHOW EXPANSION RATE OF THE UNIVERSE IS INCREASING
CALTECH PRESS RELEASE (November 22nd, 2005) Based on an ongoing study of exploding stars in the distant universe, astrophysicists have concluded that the effect of the “dark energy” that is speeding up the expansion of the universe is within 10 percent of that of Albert Einstein’s celebrated cosmological constant. Cosmologists regard this result as a […]
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KECK RELEASES DATA OF GAMMA RAY BURST 051111
MAUNA KEA, Hawaii (November 16th, 2005) Spectral data of gamma-ray burst GRB 051111 were collected with the Keck I telescope on November 11, 2005 (UT). The data is available to the public at: GRB 051111 Data (compressed file) Astronomer Jason X. Prochaska of UC Santa Cruz determined that the redshift of the gamma-ray burst is […]
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HUDSON FOUNDATION INVESTS $75,000 IN W. M. KECK OBSERVATORY
KAMUELA, Hawaii (November 7th, 2005) The W. M. Keck Observatory received a grant of $75,000 from the M.R. and Evelyn Hudson Foundation to improve astronomy research and technology. The grant will support three programs at Keck Observatory: $28,000 for a summit employee breakfast program, $25,000 for a supplemental oxygen program for summit employees, and $22,000 […]
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