Archive for keck telescopes

Stargazing anniversary celebrations slated for two Big Island astronomy sites

By alkaon on March 5, 2013 No Comments

Two astronomy-related anniversary celebrations are slated for this month on the Big Island.

Imiloa Astronomy Center in Hilo will mark its seventh anniversary on Sun., March 10 with a birthday bash featuring a series of special presentations given by top astronomers and on topics ranging from the latest stargazing discoveries to the ongoing “quest for alien worlds.” For more information about the day’s free festivities, click here.

Six days later, on the summit of the Big Island’s Mauna Kea, the tallest mountain in the Pacific Ocean, the twin Keck telescopes, which are able to peer farther into the cosmos than any other research facility, will mark two decades of world-class star-gazing service.

The Keck I telescope made its debut observations on March 16, 1993, with Keck II following three years later. Each standing eight stories tall and weighing 300 tons, the telescopes have guided astronomers and astrophysicists in revolutionizing our understanding of everything from the workings of our own solar system to details about the most distant galaxies in the “early universe.”

Reason enough to throw a weeklong W.M. Keck Observatory 20th Anniversary Celebration? You bet your lucky stars.

Slated to get under way on March 13 and wrap up on March 19, Keck Week 2013 will feature under-the-stars presentations given by some of the planet’s leading astro-scientists; an open house at the observatory, complete with plenty of hands-on exhibits; and a fundraiser gala in support of the ground-based astronomy facility’s future.

Among the top achievements made at W.M. Keck Observatory: Nobel Prize-winning research that found the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate; proof that our own Milky Way galaxy has a supermassive black hole at its center; detection of the first “exoplanet” (a planet orbiting another star — outside of our Solar System); and discovery a new population of cosmic objects, now known as “dwarf planets, which led to the demise of Pluto’s planet status.

For more information about Keck Week 2013, click here.

Article source: http://www.hawaiimagazine.com/blogs/hawaii_today/2013/3/4/Hawaii_Mauna_Kea_Hilo_Keck_Observatory_Imiloa

Tags: , , , , , , <BR/>
Categories : Astronomy News
Tags : , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The heights of astronomy, in 3-D

By alkaon on January 2, 2013 No Comments

John Brecher / NBC News

Star trails light the night sky above observatories atop Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. In the distance is Haleakala on the island of Maui. Look at the image through red-blue glasses to see the 3-D effect.

What better way to start off the year than with a beautiful view of the heavens from one of the world’s highest astronomical vantage points? Here’s one way to make it better: Show it in 3-D!

This picture of the Mauna Kea Observatories was captured last month by NBC News’ John Brecher during a visit to Hawaii’s Big Island. The 13,796-foot-high (4,205-meter-high) facility is home to 13 telescopes, ranging from the University of Hawaii’s 0.9-meter educational telescope to the 25-meter radio dish used as part of the Very Long Baseline Array.

Here you see, from left, Japan’s Subaru Telescope; the twin 10-meter Keck telescopes, operated by Caltech and the University of California; and NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility. Maui’s Haleakala volcano looms in the far background, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) away. As my colleague Phil Plait of the Bad Astronomy blog would say, “Holy Haleakala!”

The view is really worth exclaiming about when you see it in 3-D. If you can’t make your way to Mauna Kea just now and see it in person, put on some red-blue glasses to look into the sky’s depths. If you’re in the market for 3-D spectacles, check out this list of online vendors. You can also keep an eye on the Cosmic Log Facebook page for our next 3-D glasses giveaway, and use your specs to see all the cosmic 3-D pictures we’ve pointed to over the past decade.

Here’s to a delightful year of discoveries — from Mauna Kea and the rest of the world’s great telescopes.

More astronomy for the new year:

Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com’s science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by “liking” the log’s Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com’s other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out “The Case for Pluto,” my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

Article source: http://photoblog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/01/16286704-the-heights-of-astronomy-in-3-d?chromedomain=cosmiclog

Tags: , , , , , , <BR/>
Categories : Astronomy News
Tags : , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Brightest Galaxies in the Universe Were Invisible… Until Now

By alkaon on December 7, 2012 No Comments

Want to stay on top of all the space news? Follow @universetoday on Twitter

Hubble images of six of the starburst galaxies first found by ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory (Keck data shown below each in blue)

Many of the brightest, most actively star-forming galaxies in the Universe were actually undetectable by Earth-based observatories, hidden from view by thick clouds of opaque dust and gas. Thanks to ESA’s Herschel space observatory, which views the Universe in infrared, an enormous amount of these “starburst” galaxies have recently been uncovered, allowing astronomers to measure their distances with the twin telescopes of Hawaii’s W.M. Keck Observatory. What they found is quite surprising: at least 767 previously unknown galaxies, many of them generating new stars at incredible rates.

Although nearly invisible at optical wavelengths these newly-found galaxies shine brightly in far-infrared, making them visible to Herschel, which can peer through even the densest dust clouds. Once astronomers knew where the galaxies are located, they were able to target them with Hubble and, most importantly, the two 10-meter Keck telescopes — the two largest optical telescopes in the world.

By gathering literally hundreds of hours of spectral data on the galaxies with the Keck telescopes, estimates of their distances could be determined as well as their temperatures and how often new stars are born within them.

“While some of the galaxies are nearby, most are very distant; we even found galaxies that are so far that their light has taken 12 billion years to travel here, so we are seeing them when the Universe was only a ninth of its current age,” said Dr. Caitlin Casey, Hubble fellow at the UH Manoa Institute for Astronomy and lead scientist on the survey. “Now that we have a pretty good idea of how important this type of galaxy is in forming huge numbers of stars in the Universe, the next step is to figure out why and how they formed.”

A representation of the distribution of nearly 300 starbursts in one 1.4 x 1.4 degree field of view.

The galaxies, many of them observed as they were during the early stages of their formation, are producing new stars at a rate of 100 to 500 a year — with a mass equivalent of several thousand Suns — hence the moniker “starburst” galaxy. By comparison the Milky Way galaxy only births one or two Sun-mass stars per year.

The reason behind this explosion of star formation in these galaxies is unknown, but it’s thought that collisions between young galaxies may be the cause.

Another possibility is that galaxies had much more gas and dust during the early Universe, allowing for much higher star formation rates than what’s seen today.

“It’s a hotly debated topic that requires details on the shape and rotation of the galaxies before it can be resolved,” said Dr. Casey.

Still, the discovery of these “hidden” galaxies is a major step forward in understanding the evolution of star formation in the Universe.

“Our study confirms the importance of starburst galaxies in the cosmic history of star formation. Models that try to reproduce the formation and evolution of galaxies will have to take these results into account.”

– Dr. Caitlin Casey, Hubble fellow at the UH Manoa Institute for Astronomy

“For the first time, we have been able to measure distances, star formation rates, and temperatures for a brand new set of 767 previously unidentified galaxies,” said Dr. Scott Chapman, a co-author on the studies. “The previous similar survey of distant infrared starbursts only covered 73 galaxies. This is a huge improvement.”

The papers detailing the results were published today online in the Astrophysical Journal.

Sources: W.M. Keck Observatory article and ESA’s news release.

Image credits: ESA–C. Carreau/C. Casey (University of Hawai’i); COSMOS field: ESA/Herschel/SPIRE/HerMES Key Programme; Hubble images: NASA, ESA. Inset image courtesy W. M. Keck Observatory.



About

A graphic designer living in Providence, RI, Jason writes about astronomy and space exploration on his blog Lights In The Dark, Discovery News and here on Universe Today.

Tagged as:
Cosmology,
galaxies,
Herschel,
infrared,
Keck,
star formation,
starburst,
universe

Article source: http://www.universetoday.com/98791/the-brightest-galaxies-in-the-universe-were-invisible-until-now/

Tags: , , , <BR/>
Categories : Astronomy News
Tags : , , , , , , , ,

Astronomers go infrared to map brightest galaxies in Universe

By alkaon on December 4, 2012 No Comments


These glow so brightly at that they would outshine our own Milky Way by hundreds, maybe thousands, of times. They are forming stars so quickly that between 100 and 500 new stars are born in each galaxy every year, and have been coined “starbursts” by astronomers.

While it’s not clear what gives these galaxies their intense luminosity, it could be the result of a collision between two spiral-type galaxies, similar to the Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxies. Or they could be in a particularly gas-rich region of space, where galaxies form stars quickly due to constant bombardment from gas and dust.

Despite their brightness, these galaxies are nearly invisible at the wavelengths our eyes and most telescopes on Earth can see because they contain huge amounts of dust, which absorbs visible starlight. But they were detectable directly in the infrared from observations at the Herschel Space Observatory, said Dr. Caitlin Casey, a Hubble fellow at the UH Manoa Institute for Astronomy and the lead scientist behind the new results. “Herschel is an sensitive to wavelengths not observable from within Earth’s atmosphere,” she said.


Astronomers go infrared to map brightest galaxies in universe
Enlarge

Images of six of the dusty galaxies as seen by Hubble Space Telescope with distances (in billions of light years) measured by the W. M. Keck Observatory. The background is an image of the sky in far-infrared from Herschel, where dusty galaxies like this are most easily detected. The Keck data (shown in blue below galaxy images), which spreads the light of each galaxy into a spectrum, allowed the astronomers to measure distances to each galaxy using “fingerprints” of atoms and molecules in each galaxy. These galaxies were previously unidentified due to the large amounts of dust absorbing the visible light. Credit: ESA-C. Carreau

“Detecting these bright used to be difficult, and a handful was plenty; now with Herschel we are finding them by the thousands, enabling a census like this,” said Göran Pilbratt, Herschel Project Scientist.

Once found, taking measurements of these galaxies at required using the 10-meter Keck telescopes, the two largest in the world. Over the course of several nights the group was able to detect and measure distances to nearly 800 of these galaxies.

“For the first time, we have been able to measure distances, star formation rates, and temperatures for a brand new set of 767 previously unidentified galaxies,” said Dr. Scott Chapman, a co-author on the studies. “The previous similar survey of distant infrared starbursts only covered 73 galaxies. This is a huge improvement.”

“While some of the galaxies are nearby, most are very distant; we even found galaxies that are so far that their light has taken 12 billion years to travel here, so we are seeing them when the Universe was only a ninth of its current age,” Casey said. “Now that we have a pretty good idea of how important this type of galaxy is in forming huge numbers of stars in the Universe, the next step is to figure out why and how they formed.”

“It’s hard to figure out how most galaxies formed based on information from only a small part of the Universe, just like it’s hard to guess how big an elephant is if you only get a glimpse of its tail,” Casey said. “Now that we have an accurate census of starbursting galaxies across a huge time period in the Universe’s history, we can start to piece together how these galaxies grew and evolved.”

Two papers detailing these results are published online today in the Astrophysical Journal.

Journal reference:

Astrophysical Journal
search and more info
website

Provided by

W. M. Keck Observatory
search and more info
website

<!–
–>


Article source: http://phys.org/news/2012-12-astronomers-infrared-brightest-galaxies-universe.html

Tags: , , , <BR/>
Categories : Astronomy News
Tags : , , , , , , , , , , ,

Astronomers uncover a surprising trend in galaxy evolution

By alkaon on October 23, 2012 No Comments

plot of disk galaxiesA comprehensive study of hundreds of galaxies observed by the Keck telescopes in Hawaii and NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has revealed an unexpected pattern of change that extends back 8 billion years, or more than half the age of the universe.

“Astronomers thought disk galaxies in the nearby universe had settled into their present form by about 8 billion years ago, with little additional development since,” said Susan Kassin from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “The trend we’ve observed instead shows the opposite, that galaxies were steadily changing over this time period.”

Today, star-forming galaxies take the form of orderly disk-shaped systems, such as the Andromeda Galaxy or the Milky Way, where rotation dominates over other internal motions. The most distant blue galaxies in the study tend to be different, exhibiting disorganized motions in multiple directions. There is a steady shift toward greater organization to the present time as the disorganized motions dissipate and rotation speeds increase. These galaxies are gradually settling into well-behaved disks.

Blue galaxies — their color indicates stars are forming within them — show less-disorganized motions and ever-faster rotation speeds the closer they are observed to the present. This trend holds true for galaxies of all masses, but the most massive systems always show the highest level of organization.

Researchers say the distant blue galaxies they studied are gradually transforming into rotating disk galaxies like the Milky Way.

“Previous studies removed galaxies that did not look like the well-ordered rotating disks now common in the universe today,” said Benjamin Weiner from the University of Arizona in Tucson. “By neglecting them, these studies examined only those rare galaxies in the distant universe that are well-behaved and concluded that galaxies didn’t change.”

Rather than limit their sample to certain galaxy types, the researchers instead looked at all galaxies with emission lines bright enough to be used for determining internal motions. Emission lines are the discrete wavelengths of radiation characteristically emitted by the gas within a galaxy. They are revealed when a galaxy’s light is separated into its component colors. These emission lines also carry information about the galaxy’s internal motions and distance.

The team studied a sample of 544 blue galaxies from the Deep Extragalactic Evolutionary Probe 2 (DEEP2) Redshift Survey, a project that employs Hubble and the twin 10-meter telescopes at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii. Located between 2 billion and 8 billion light-years away, the galaxies have stellar masses ranging from about 0.3 to 100 percent of the mass of our home galaxy.

The Milky Way Galaxy must have gone through the same rough-and-tumble evolution as the galaxies in the DEEP2 sample and gradually settled into its present state as the Sun and solar system were being formed.

In the past 8 billion years, the number of mergers between galaxies large and small has decreased sharply. So has the overall rate of star formation and disruptions of supernova explosions associated with star formation. Scientists speculate that these factors may play a role in creating the evolutionary trend they observe.

Now that astronomers see this pattern, they can adjust computer simulations of galaxy evolution until these models are able to replicate the observed trend. This will guide scientists to the physical processes most responsible for it.

Article source: http://www.astronomy.com/~/link.aspx?_id=03397b05-2c2d-4253-8fa9-a5ba2c5c3a4b

Tags: , , , <BR/>
Categories : Astronomy News
Tags : , , , , , , , ,

Private foundations fund new astronomy tool

By alkaon on July 13, 2012 No Comments

Like the Keck I Telescope’s laser, shown here, the Keck II TOPTICA laser will launch from behind the telescope’s secondary mirror. The laser will be more powerful as well as non-pulsing — which allows it to create a brighter guide star. The guide star is used to measure starlight-bending turbulence in Earth’s atmosphere, which is then canceled out with a deformable mirror in the adaptive optics system. (Photo courtesy of Andrew Cooper | W. M. Keck Observatory)

MEDIA RELEASE

The W. M. Keck Observatory has been awarded two major grants to help build a $4 million laser system as the next leap forward in a technology which already enables ground-based telescopes to exceed the observational power of telescopes in space.

The new laser, when installed on the current adaptive optics system on the Keck II telescope, will improve the performance of the system and advance future technology initiatives.

In early July the Observatory received a $1.5 million grant from the W. M. Keck Foundation, adding to a $2 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation awarded eight months prior for the multi-year project. Keck Observatory is charged to raise the remaining funds needed from its private supporters over the next two years.

“Ever since Galileo, astronomers have been building bigger telescopes to collect more light to be able to observe more distant objects,” said Peter Wizinowich, who leads the adaptive optics developments at Keck Observatory. “In theory, the larger the telescope the more detail you can see. However, because of the blurring caused by Earth’s atmosphere, a 10-inch or a 10-meter telescope see about the same amount of detail.”

There are two solutions to this problem, Wizinowich said: put a telescope in space or use adaptive optics technology to cancel out the distortions of the atmosphere.

W. M. Keck Observatory helped pioneer the astronomical use of adaptive optics in the 1990’s, and now delivers images three to four times sharper than the Hubble Space Telescope.

Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics, or LGS AO, uses a laser beam generated from within the Observatory to excite a layer of sodium atoms 60 miles (90 km) up, above most of Earth’s atmosphere. The sodium atoms are remnants of micro-meteors which have burned away as they hit the atmosphere.

Once the specially-tuned laser hits these atoms, they light up and create an artificial star or beacon that can be used to precisely measure atmospheric turbulence and cancel out the distortions in real time.

The new laser will improve on the current laser system at Keck in several ways. Most importantly, it will be brighter. But it will also differ by being a non-pulsed laser. Researchers have discovered that non-pulsed lasers do a better job kicking sodium atoms into action and result in a more capable and efficient system.

The advanced Keck II laser will be blazing a trail for the adaptive optics system for use on the Thirty Meter Telescope, or TMT, currently in development.

“Keck can make the use of this laser routine, so that TMT can use it efficiently at first light,” said TMT Project Manager Gary Sanders. For this reason, the TMT has committed a modest amount of engineering and technical support for the Keck laser project.

The new Keck II Laser is also one of the first steps in a $50-million Next Generation Adaptive Optics system in design at Keck Observatory that will go far beyond what is currently possible. Just what will be discovered is anyone’s guess. Astronomers often find the unexpected when they gain new views into the cosmos.

Among the scientific breakthroughs which have come from the original Keck II LGS AO system is the definitive evidence of a supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

“Thanks to the resolving power of the Keck Telescopes, you can get the clearest view of the center of our galaxy and see the stars that are residing at its heart,” said Andrea Ghez, an astronomy professor at UCLA who was recently awarded the Crafoord Prize for her research involving Keck.

Ghez and her team have been observing the galactic center of the Milky Way for the last 17 years to see how these stars move. Their data helped prove the existence of the black hole, and their research is far from over.

“New mysteries are being revealed to help us understand how our galaxy formed, how black holes form, how they interact with their surroundings and influence the evolution of galaxies, the fundamental building blocks of our Universe. We are seeing things that no one expected,” said Ghez.

The new laser will improve their black hole research by at least a factor of two, she said.

“The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation puts a high priority on provocative, transformative scientific research and Keck Observatory is an undisputed leader in revolutionizing astronomy with adaptive optics technology,” said Foundation Science Program Director Cynthia Atherton. “This project resonates with what we say on our external website: we like to take smart risks because major leaps forward in science won’t happen otherwise.”

The confidence that the Keck Foundation and the Moore Foundation have shown in Keck Observatory by partnering with us on the new laser is very significant, said Observatory Director Taft Armandroff.

“These two Foundations are the most sophisticated private funders of science today,” Armandroff said.

W. M. Keck Observatory, a scientific partnership of the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and NASA, operates two 10-meter optical/infrared telescopes on the summit of Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii.

The Keck I Telescope began science observations in March 1993, and observations with Keck II began in October 1996.

Today, as a private, 501(c) 3 non-profit organization, Keck Observatory is supported by both public funding sources and private philanthropy.

The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, established in 2000, seeks to advance environmental conservation, scientific research, and patient care. The Foundation’s Science Program aims to make a significant impact on the development of provocative, transformative scientific research, and increase knowledge in emerging fields.

Based in Los Angeles, the W. M. Keck Foundation was established in 1954 by the late W. M. Keck, founder of the Superior Oil Company. The Foundation’s grant making is focused primarily on pioneering efforts in the areas of medical research, science and engineering and undergraduate education.

The Foundation also maintains a Southern California Grant Program that provides support for the Los Angeles community, with a special emphasis on children and youth.

— Find out more:
www.wmkeck.org
www.keckobservatory.org
www.moore.org

 

You might be interested in:

  1. Dr. Iye awarded with Medal with Purple Ribbon for astronomy work
  2. NSF awards $1.72M to improve Keck adaptive optics system
  3. Keck Observatory project scientist wins 2010 Kavli Prize
  4. Starlit Fund brightens astronomy center
  5. Starlit Fund brightens Astronomy Center

Article source: http://www.hawaii247.com/2012/07/13/private-foundations-fund-new-astronomy-tool/

Tags: , , <BR/>
Categories : Astronomy News
Tags : , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Private Foundations Fund New Astronomy Tool

By alkaon on July 12, 2012 No Comments

The W. M. Keck Observatory has been awarded two major grants to help build a $4 million laser system as the next leap forward in a technology which already enables ground-based telescopes to exceed the observational power of telescopes in space. The new laser, when installed on the current adaptive optics system on the Keck II telescope, will improve the performance of the system and advance future technology initiatives.

In early July the Observatory received a $1.5 million grant from the W. M. Keck Foundation, adding to a $2 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation awarded eight months prior for the multi-year project. Keck Observatory is charged to raise the remaining funds needed from its private supporters over the next two years.

“Ever since Galileo, astronomers have been building bigger telescopes to collect more light to be able to observe more distant objects,” said Peter Wizinowich, who leads the adaptive optics developments at Keck Observatory.

“In theory, the larger the telescope the more detail you can see. However, because of the blurring caused by Earth’s atmosphere, a 10-inch or a 10-meter telescope see about the same amount of detail.”

There are two solutions to this problem, Wizinowich said: put a telescope in space or use adaptive optics technology to cancel out the distortions of the atmosphere. W. M. Keck Observatory helped pioneer the astronomical use of adaptive optics in the 1990′s, and now delivers images three to four times sharper than the Hubble Space Telescope.

Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics, or LGS AO, uses a laser beam generated from within the Observatory to excite a layer of sodium atoms 60 miles (90 km) up, above most of Earth’s atmosphere. The sodium atoms are remnants of micro-meteors which have burned away as they hit the atmosphere. Once the specially-tuned laser hits these atoms, they light up and create an artificial star or beacon that can be used to precisely measure atmospheric turbulence and cancel out the distortions in real time.

The new laser will improve on the current laser system at Keck in several ways. Most importantly, it will be brighter. But it will also differ by being a non-pulsed laser. Researchers have discovered that non-pulsed lasers do a better job kicking sodium atoms into action and result in a more capable and efficient system.

The advanced Keck II laser will be blazing a trail for the adaptive optics system for use on the Thirty Meter Telescope, or TMT, currently in development.

“Keck can make the use of this laser routine, so that TMT can use it efficiently at first light,” said TMT Project Manager Gary Sanders. For this reason, the TMT has committed a modest amount of engineering and technical support for the Keck laser project.

The new Keck II Laser is also one of the first steps in a $50-million Next Generation Adaptive Optics system in design at Keck Observatory that will go far beyond what is currently possible. Just what will be discovered is anyone’s guess. Astronomers often find the unexpected when they gain new views into the cosmos.

Among the scientific breakthroughs which have come from the original Keck II LGS AO system is the definitive evidence of a supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

“Thanks to the resolving power of the Keck Telescopes, you can get the clearest view of the center of our galaxy and see the stars that are residing at its heart,” said Andrea Ghez, an astronomy professor at UCLA who was recently awarded the Crafoord Prize for her research involving Keck.

Ghez and her team have been observing the galactic center of the Milky Way for the last 17 years to see how these stars move. Their data helped prove the existence of the black hole, and their research is far from over.

“New mysteries are being revealed to help us understand how our galaxy formed, how black holes form, how they interact with their surroundings and influence the evolution of galaxies, the fundamental building blocks of our Universe. We are seeing things that no one expected,” said Ghez.

The new laser will improve their black hole research by at least a factor of two, she said.

“The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation is tasked to fund fundamental scientific research and Keck Observatory is an undisputed leader in revolutionizing astronomy with adaptive optics technology,” said Foundation Science Program Director Cynthia Atherton. “This project resonates with what we say on our external website: we like to take smart risks because major leaps forward in science won’t happen otherwise.”

The confidence that the Keck Foundation and the Moore Foundation have shown in Keck Observatory by partnering with us on the new laser is very significant, said Observatory Director Taft Armandroff.

“These two Foundations are the most sophisticated private funders of science today,” Armandroff said.

Article source: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Private_Foundations_Fund_New_Astronomy_Tool_999.html

Tags: , , , , , , <BR/>
Categories : Astronomy News
Tags : , , , , , , , , , ,

Private foundations fund new astronomy tool

By alkaon on July 11, 2012 No Comments

July 11th, 2012




The W. M. Keck Observatory has been awarded two major grants to help build a $4 million laser system as the next leap forward in a technology which already enables ground-based telescopes to exceed the observational power of telescopes in space. The new laser, when installed on the current adaptive optics system on the Keck II telescope, will improve the performance of the system and advance future technology initiatives.

In early July the Observatory received a $1.5 million grant from the W. M. Keck Foundation, adding to a $2 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation awarded eight months prior for the multi-year project. Keck Observatory is charged to raise the remaining funds needed from its private supporters over the next two years.

“Ever since Galileo, astronomers have been building bigger telescopes to collect more light to be able to observe more distant objects,” said Peter Wizinowich, who leads the adaptive optics developments at Keck Observatory. “In theory, the larger the telescope the more detail you can see. However, because of the blurring caused by Earth’s atmosphere, a 10-inch or a 10-meter telescope see about the same amount of detail.”

There are two solutions to this problem, Wizinowich said: put a telescope in space or use adaptive optics technology to cancel out the distortions of the atmosphere. W. M. Keck Observatory helped pioneer the astronomical use of adaptive optics in the 1990’s, and now delivers images three to four times sharper than the Hubble Space Telescope.

Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics, or LGS AO, uses a laser beam generated from within the Observatory to excite a layer of sodium atoms 60 miles (90 km) up, above most of Earth’s atmosphere. The sodium atoms are remnants of micro-meteors which have burned away as they hit the atmosphere. Once the specially-tuned laser hits these atoms, they light up and create an artificial star or beacon that can be used to precisely measure atmospheric turbulence and cancel out the distortions in real time.

The new laser will improve on the current laser system at Keck in several ways. Most importantly, it will be brighter. But it will also differ by being a non-pulsed laser. Researchers have discovered that non-pulsed lasers do a better job kicking sodium atoms into action and result in a more capable and efficient system.

The advanced Keck II laser will be blazing a trail for the adaptive optics system for use on the Thirty Meter Telescope, or TMT, currently in development.

“Keck can make the use of this laser routine, so that TMT can use it efficiently at first light,” said TMT Project Manager Gary Sanders. For this reason, the TMT has committed a modest amount of engineering and technical support for the Keck laser project.

The new Keck II Laser is also one of the first steps in a $50-million Next Generation Adaptive Optics system in design at Keck Observatory that will go far beyond what is currently possible. Just what will be discovered is anyone’s guess. Astronomers often find the unexpected when they gain new views into the cosmos.

Among the scientific breakthroughs which have come from the original Keck II LGS AO system is the definitive evidence of a supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

“Thanks to the resolving power of the Keck Telescopes, you can get the clearest view of the center of our galaxy and see the stars that are residing at its heart,” said Andrea Ghez, an astronomy professor at UCLA who was recently awarded the Crafoord Prize for her research involving Keck. Ghez and her team have been observing the galactic center of the Milky Way for the last 17 years to see how these stars move. Their data helped prove the existence of the black hole, and their research is far from over.

“New mysteries are being revealed to help us understand how our galaxy formed, how black holes form, how they interact with their surroundings and influence the evolution of galaxies, the fundamental building blocks of our Universe. We are seeing things that no one expected,” said Ghez.

The new laser will improve their black hole research by at least a factor of two, she said.

“The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation is tasked to fund fundamental scientific research and Keck Observatory is an undisputed leader in revolutionizing astronomy with adaptive optics technology,” said Foundation Science Program Director Cynthia Atherton. “This project resonates with what we say on our external website: we like to take smart risks because major leaps forward in science won’t happen otherwise.”

The confidence that the Keck Foundation and the Moore Foundation have shown in Keck Observatory by partnering with us on the new laser is very significant, said Observatory Director Taft Armandroff.

“These two Foundations are the most sophisticated private funders of science today,” Armandroff said.

Provided by W. M. Keck Observatory



This PHYSorg Science News Wire page contains a press release issued by an organization mentioned above and is provided to you “as is” with little or no review from Phys.Org staff.

<!–post footer here

print this article
email this article


Digg this

share on Reddit

–>

Article source: http://phys.org/wire-news/103444889/private-foundations-fund-new-astronomy-tool.html

Tags: , , , , <BR/>
Categories : Astronomy News
Tags : , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Powerful New Astronomy Tool Arrives on Mauna Kea

By alkaon on February 29, 2012 No Comments

A 10,000-pound package was delivered on Feb. 16 to the W. M. Keck Observatory near the summit of Mauna Kea. Inside is a powerful new scientific instrument that will dramatically increase the cosmic data gathering power of what is already the world’s most productive ground-based observatory.

The new instrument is called MOSFIRE (Multi-Object Spectrometer For Infra-Red Exploration). It is the newest tool to survey the cosmos and help astronomers learn more about star formation, galaxy formation and the early universe. The spectrometer was made possible through funding provided by the National Science Foundation and a generous donation from astronomy benefactors Gordon and Betty Moore.

“This is a crucial and important step,” said MOSFIRE co-principal investigator Ian McLean of UC Los Angeles, who has been involved in the building of four instruments for the Keck telescopes. “Just shipping it to Hawaii is the first step.” A long series of installation steps are already underway that will lead up to MOSFIRE’s “first light” on the sky and handover to the Keck community in August.

MOSFIRE will gather spectra — chemical signatures in the rainbows of light from everything from stars to galaxies — at near-infrared wavelengths (0.97-2.45 microns, or millionths of a meter). That’s light which is beyond the red end of a rainbow — just a bit longer wavelength than human eyes can see. Observing in the infrared allows researchers to penetrate clouds of dust to see objects that are otherwise obscured. It also allows for the study of the most distant objects, the spectra of which have been stretched beyond optical wavelengths by the expansion of the universe.

What sets MOSFIRE apart from other instruments is its vastly more light-sensitive camera and its ability to survey up to 46 objects at once then switch targets in just minutes — an operation that takes comparable infrared instruments one to two days to complete.

“I reckon that MOSFIRE will observe very faint targets more than a hundred times faster than has ever been possible,” says Caltech astronomer Chuck Steidel, MOSFIRE’s co-principal investigator. “All the observations that my group and I have done in near-infrared spectroscopy with Keck over the last ten years could be done in just one night with MOSFIRE.”

Steidel anticipates that MOSFIRE will be one of the Keck’s workhorse instruments, used for about half of all telescope time on the Keck I Telescope. “It’s opening up a whole new area of study.”

Another big asset of MOSFIRE is that it can scan the sky with a 6.1 arc minute field of view, which is about 20 percent of a full Moon and nearly 100 times bigger than the Keck’s current near-infrared camera. To take spectra of multiple objects, the state-of-the-art spectrometer consists of 46 pairs of sliding bars that open and close like curtains. Aligned in rows, each pair of bars blocks most of the sky, leaving a small slit between the bars which allow a sliver of light from the targeted object to leak through. Light from each slit then enters the spectrometer, which breaks down the object’s light into its spectrum of wavelengths.

Because everything that’s even somewhat warm radiates in the infrared, all infrared instruments must be kept cold to prevent any trace of heat from the ground, the telescope, or the instrument itself from messing up the signal from space, MOSFIRE is kept at a cool 120 Kelvins (about -243 degrees Fahrenheit or -153 degrees Celsius). This makes MOSFIRE the largest cryogenic instrument on the Keck telescopes.

Astronomers will use MOSFIRE to study the epoch of galaxy formation, as well as the so-called period of re-ionization, when the universe was just a half-billion to a billion years old. The instrument will also be used to investigate nearby stars, young stars, how stars formed, and even brown dwarfs, which are stars not quite massive enough for nuclear fusion to ignite in their cores.

MOSFIRE will also allow astronomers to do riskier — but more scientifically rewarding — research, Steidel says. Taking the spectrum of a single star or galaxy involves precious telescope time and resources. But because MOSFIRE can observe many objects at once, astronomers can afford to take extremely long exposures. Otherwise, such long exposures of single targets would be difficult to justify with limited telescope time and other observing targets waiting in line.

Caltech’s Keith Matthews, who has built two previous Keck instruments, plays a leading role as chief instrument scientist. The team includes the engineering and technical staff of W. M. Keck Observatory, the technical staff of the UCLA Infrared Lab, optical designer Harland Epps of UC Santa Cruz and the staff of Caltech Optical Observatories.

Media Contact:
Larry O’Hanlon
W. M. Keck Observatory
lohanlon@keck.hawaii.edu
+1 808-881-3827

Science Contacts:
Dr. Ian McLean
Univ. of California, Los Angeles
mclean@astro.ucla.edu
+1 310-206-7535

Dr. Taft Armandroff
Director, W. M. Keck Observatory
tarmandroff@keck.hawaii.edu
+1 808-885-7887

The W. M. Keck Observatory operates two 10-meter optical/infrared telescopes on the summit of Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. The twin telescopes feature a suite of advanced instruments including imagers, multi-object spectrographs, high-resolution spectrographs, integral-field spectroscopy and a world-leading laser guide star adaptive optics system which cancels out much of the interference caused by Earth’s turbulent atmosphere. The Observatory is a private 501(c) 3 non-profit organization and a scientific partnership of the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and NASA.

Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook.

Article source: http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=36243

Tags: , , , <BR/>
Categories : Astronomy News
Tags : , , , , , , ,

Giant Eye Will Peer at the Sky

By alkaon on February 6, 2012 No Comments

When it comes to telescopes, astronomers are like muscle-car enthusiasts: give them the most powerful machine ever built, and they’ll be satisfied … for a little while. Then they start thinking about how much they could do with just a little more horsepower — or better still, a lot. The most intriguing, mysterious objects in the universe always seem to lie just beyond the faint edge of what’s barely detectable with existing technology. If only there were telescopes with bigger mirrors, packing more light-gathering power, observers could finally figure out what’s going on out there.

This has been the stargazer’s lament ever since Galileo built his first scope back in 1609, and over the years, astronomers have been feeding their addiction with ever larger instruments, culminating in the twin giant Keck telescopes, with mirrors an astonishing 33 ft. (10 m) across, which went into operation in the 1990s atop Mauna Kea mountain in Hawaii.
(See photos of Hubble’s greatest hits.)

But astronomers are finally getting the upgrade they’ve so desperately (and predictably) wanted. At least three giant-telescope projects are now under way, and the biggest of them, the European Extremely Large Telescope, or E-ELT, has just taken several significant steps toward what observers elegantly call “first light”: the Chilean government has donated the land for the telescope, and the European Southern Observatory, the governing body for the project, has authorized work on both the mirrors and the access road to the site.

That may not sound like a big deal, but for a project that’s been a gleam in astronomers’ eyes for more than a decade, the commencement of actual work is no small thing. Originally, the member governments of the European Southern Observatory consortium were dreaming even bigger: they had a proposal on the table for something they called, appropriately, the Overwhelmingly Large Telescope (OWL). Its light-gathering mirror would have been a whopping 328 ft. (100 m) across, wider than a football field is long.
(See photos of the otherworldly work of West Virginia’s Green Bank radio telescope.)

The OWL would have also been overwhelmingly expensive to build, though, so the designers toned it down to a mere 128 ft. (39 m) and lost the overwhelmingly label from the name. Even shrunken to that size, the E-ELT will have more than 15 times the light-gathering area of the Kecks — and will presumably make astronomers 15 times happier.

The scientists’ delight is likely to be justified since the E-ELT might help answer some of the greatest mysteries in astronomy. It could, for example, see the very earliest galaxies as they first burst into light at the dawn of the universe. It could make highly precise measurements of the dark energy that’s causing the universe to expand faster all the time — and maybe help answer the question of what this bizarre force really is. The E-ELT might also be able to spot earthlike planets orbiting distant stars, and even examine their atmospheres to see whether life might exist there. And, just as always seems to happen when astronomers get a powerful new toy, the E-ELT will almost certainly discover things nobody has yet imagined possible.
(See “The World’s Largest Radio Telescope.”)

None of that will happen until the early 2020s, though: such a huge and complex instrument takes a while to construct. But given that an independent review panel has declared the project’s $1.4 billion budget to be realistic, there’s little reason to doubt it will happen. In the meantime, astronomers can hope that another huge instrument, the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), will be finished by 2019 as planned, also in the high desert of northern Chile. The mirrors for the GMT are currently being built at the University of Arizona, by a multinational consortium that includes Harvard University, the Australian National University, and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute. The GMT is a bit smaller than the E-ELT, with seven 28-ft. (8.4 m) mirrors that will combine to create the equivalent of a single, 83.5-ft. (25.448 m) one. The E-ELT, by contrast, will be made of more than a thousand 5-ft. (1.5 m) mirrors. And then there’s the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), with 492 small mirrors working together to simulate a big one. The TMT is slated to go on Hawaii’s Mauna Kea, near the twin Kecks (fittingly, since University of California, Santa Cruz, astronomer Jerry Nelson designed the Kecks and the TMT).

By the early 2020s, then, there could be three brand-new sets of gigantic eyes on the sky, peering to the very edge of the universe and into the cores of glittering galaxies — and solving cosmic mysteries by the bushel. That should keep astronomers happy for at least a few years — until they start thinking, once again, “Wouldn’t it be great to have a really big telescope?”

Read “A Telescope as Sharp as Hubble — but on the Ground.”

See the best photos from space in 2011.

Article source: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2106198,00.html

Tags: , , , <BR/>
Categories : Astronomy News
Tags : , , ,

NASA Image of the day

First American Woman in Space

 
On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman to fly in space when the space shuttle Challenger launched on mission STS-7. As one of the three mission specialists on the STS-7 mission, she played a vital role in helping the crew deploy communications satellites, conduct experiments and make use of the first Shuttle Pallet Satellite. In this image, Dr. Ride sits in the aft flight deck mission specialist's seat during deorbit preparations. › Read more about Sally Ride's historic flight. Image Credit: NASA
Read More