Lowell astronomer Evgenya Shkolnik and her collaborators have published a set of directions for searching out exoplanets, using W. M. Keck Observatory spectroscopy.
Their paper, recently published in The Astrophysical Journal, examined new and existing data from stars and brown dwarfs that are less than 300 million years old, as determined from strong X-ray emission readings. In all, the authors identified 144 young targets for exoplanet searches, with 20 very strong candidates, according to Dr. Shkolnik. This candidate list is being searched for planets with Gemini’s NICI Planet-Finding Campaign and the Planets Around Low-Mass Stars survey, led by astronomer Michael Liu and graduate student Brendan Bowler, respectively, both at the Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawai‘i.
Günther Hasinger
University of Hawai’i Black Holes and the Fate of the Universe
The character and distribution of stellar and supermassive black holes is a fascinating and rapidly changing area of astronomy research. Recently, the W. M. Keck Observatory has confirmed supermassive black holes are in the centers of most nearby galaxies, including our own Milky Way. A tight relationship exists between black hole mass and the properties of their host galaxies. New instrument capabilities, like those planned at Keck, will reveal even more about the nature of black holes and how they play a role in the ongoing evolution of the universe and everything in it.
Looking into the optics of the Keck 2 telescopeTuesday, November 20, 2012
7:00 PM
Gates Performing Arts Center Auditorium
Hawaii Preparatory Academy
65-1692 Kohala Mtn. Rd., Waimea
Seating is limited to first come, first served.
Doors Open at 6:30 PM
Free and Open to the Public
A thin crescent Moon will be about 5.5° from Mars tonight. The Moon will be a thin crescent, only 8% illuminated. The pair will be about the same elevation, 25° above the horizon at sunset.
A very young moon over Waikoloa, this is only 26 hours after new, visible to the unaided eye as a sliver in the fading glow of sunsetNew Moon will occur today at 12:08HST.
During this new moon a total solar eclipse will sweep across Northern Australia and the South Pacific, ending before reaching the west coast of South America. None of this eclipse will be visible from Hawai’i.
Spent the last few days at work absorbed in the TRICK project, adding a new IR tip-tilt capability to the Keck 1 AO system. Still a long way to go, but some of the parts are now in place…
Ean and myself lifting the dichroic pickoff stage into place for the TRICK IR tip-tilt sensor
Tomorrow morning, November 12th, Saturn will join a very thin Moon in the dawn. The pair will be at about the same elevation, 15° above the horizon at sunrise and about 4.5° apart. The Moon will be very thin, only 2.3% illuminated. Above the pair a brilliant Venus will shine at about 30° elevation at sunrise.
A thin crescent Moon will rise in accompaniment with Venus tomorrow morning. A brilliant Venus, shining at -4.0 magnitude, will rise about 5.5° from a 7% illuminated Moon. The pair will rise about 04:10HST and be about 30° above the horizon at sunrise.
Mercury is ending it’s last evening apparition of 2012. Over the next few days the planet will slide into the sunset heading for inferior conjunction on November 17th and begin a morning apparition beginning in waning days of November.
While Comet 168P Hergenrother may be a bit of a mouthful, it is the proper designation for an interesting comet. Discovered in 1998, the comet is one of dozens that orbit in the inner solar system. Normally inconspicuous objects, these comets orbit quietly, objects that only astronomers love, or even know about. You would normally have needed a substantial telescope to see 168P, shining very dimly at magnitude 15.5 at it’s brightest. A community of amateur astronomers keeps tabs on these comets, occasionally photographing them, updating the orbits.
As the comet approached perihelion during the beginning of October, it became apparent that something had happened. Several observers were reporting that the comet had brightened. Suddenly the comet was far brighter, eventually reaching near 8th magnitude, over 500 times brighter than expected. We have seen this sort of thing before, a cometary breakup. Observations from several large telescopes, including Gemini North here on Mauna Kea, showed that the comet has split into at least four pieces.
When a breakup occurs it exposes a great deal of fresh material and debris, dramatically adding to the supply of dust and gas in the coma and creating a far brighter object. It is not the comet itself we see, that is fairly small. It is the coma and tail, the cloud of dust and gas that reflects the sunlight and gives a comet the synonymous appearance.
Comet 168P Hergenrother currently sports a small fan shaped tail, easily visible in the telescope. We enjoyed this classic comet shape in the telescopes last new moon at the Mauna Kea VIS. Setting up a telescope and CCD camera last night allowed me to photograph the comet, appearing much the same as it did a few weeks ago.
Comet 168P Hergenrother taken with a 28cm SCT and a CoolSNAP ES2 CCD camera at f/10, sum of 12x30s exposures binned 4×4
