The nucleus of a comet undone: Scientists monitor Hergenrother's breakup

http://phys.org/news/2012-11-nucleus-comet-undone-scientists-hergenrother.html

November 5, 2012 - phys.org

"Comet Hergenrother is splitting apart," said Rachel Stevenson, a post-doctoral fellow working at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Using the National Optical Astronomy Observatory's Gemini North Telescope on top of Mauna Kea, Hawaii, we have resolved that the nucleus of the comet has separated into at least four distinct pieces resulting in a large increase in dust material in its coma."
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Comet Breaks Apart Before Astronomers' Eyes

http://www.space.com/18364-comet-breakup-inner-solar-system.html

November 6, 2012 - space.com
A comet is falling apart on its trek through the inner solar system, and astronomers have a ringside seat for all the dramatic action.
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"Comet Hergenrother is splitting apart," Rachel Stevenson, a post-doctoral fellow at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said in a statement. "Using the Gemini North Telescope on top of Mauna Kea, Hawaii, we have resolved that the nucleus of the comet has separated into at least four distinct pieces, resulting in a large increase in dust material in its coma."
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Polar Ring Galaxy NGC 660

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap121110.html

November 10, 2012 - Astronomy Picture of the Day

Astronomers set up telescope timeshare

http://www.nature.com/news/astronomers-set-up-telescope-timeshare-1.11725

November 2, 2012 - Nature News
Following a landmark agreement to swap telescope time, Japanese astronomers will gain access to the southern skies, while astronomers with the Gemini consortium will get to use specialized instruments on Japan’s premier telescope.
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Gemini Observatory releases image of rare polar-ring galaxy

http://tinyurl.com/9vj6jdk

October  19, 2012 - Astronomy.com
Such galaxies display a ring of stars, dust, and gas extending tens of thousands of light-years along an orbit nearly perpendicular to the main disk, although scientists are unsure of their formation.
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Big Picture: Galactic smash-up

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20003649

October 19, 2012 - BBC News
This "polar ring galaxy" NGC 660 is a snapshot of a galactic punch-up of the grandest type. At the centre of the image, captured at the Gemini Observatory, is a type of spiral galaxy. The vast ring of stars and debris around it - 40,000 light-years across - came from another galaxy in a collision that astronomers can now begin to unpick.

Galaxy dance of death creates starburst shockwave

http://tinyurl.com/9yngd2l

October 19, 2012 - New Scientist
Meet a poor crazy mixed-up galaxy, NGC 660. It's a lenticular galaxy, meaning it's not a crowd-pleasing spiral or a shapeless blob elliptical, but essentially both. Visible in this image from a Gemini telescope on the mountain Mauna Kea, Hawaii, is a surrounding ring of gas, dust and stars, which is what's confusing astronomers.
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Gemini Observatory Catches Rare Glimpse Of Polar Ring Galaxy

http://tinyurl.com/8ahjcc7

October 19, 2012 - RedOrbit

Many images that we see from the space observatories are beautiful. Swirling colors and bright galaxies make for amazing images. But an image just released from the ground-based Gemini Observatory of the polar-ring galaxy NGC 660 might be the most hauntingly beautiful image ever. Add in the back story of a colorful and dramatic tale of two galaxies locked in a life-and-death struggle, and the picture becomes poetry in motion.
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Galactic Struggle Captured by Gemini Observatory

http://tinyurl.com/8aspg5p

October 19, 2012 - Universe Today
Strings of gas and dust, the wreckage of a colossal galactic struggle, lie strewn and littered about polar-ring galaxy NGC 660 in this new image from the Gemini Observatory.
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Gemini captures new images of Pluto, Charon

http://tinyurl.com/9m7cq8h

September 27, 2012 - West Hawaii Today
Gemini’s North telescope played a role in refining information about former planet Pluto and its companion Charon.
In the process, astronomers continued to improve their abilities to identify Earth-sized objects, Gemini spokesman Peter Michaud said.
“We’re refining our ability to detect smaller and smaller objects,” Michaud said. “That’s exciting.”
Steve Howell of the NASA Ames Research Center and his team temporarily installed a Differential Speckle Survey Instrument on the Gemini telescope on Mauna Kea. The team focused the instrument on Pluto and Charon and took a series of images, which were then used to get the clearest picture yet of the pair taken from Earth.
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Pluto captured in best telescope image

http://tinyurl.com/d5y666w

September 27, 2012 - UPI.com
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Astronomers at the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii used Pluto, no longer the solar system's ninth planet but rather reclassified as a dwarf planet, and its largest moon as a surrogate extrasolar planetary system to produce exceptionally high-resolution images with the observatory's 26-foot telescope using a method called reconstructive speckle imaging.
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Best Photo of Pluto from Earth Snapped by Hawaii Telescope

http://www.space.com/17784-best-pluto-photo-from-earth-picture.html

September 26, 2012 - Space.com
A ground-based telescope has snapped the sharpest image yet of Pluto and its moon Charon taken in visible light from Earth.
The Gemini North 8-meter telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawai'i captured the photo of the dwarf planet  and its companion using a technique called reconstructive speckle imaging. The resulting image clearly shows the two bodies, which are nearly 3.7 billion miles (6 billion kilometers) from the sun — about 40 times the distance between the sun and Earth.
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New Speckly Image Shows Non-Planet Pluto In the Sharpest Detail Yet

http://tinyurl.com/bwpncq4

September 27, 2012 - Popular Science
This blurry image of Pluto and Charon may not seem that impressive at first glance, but consider this: The resolution here is equivalent to separating a pair of car headlights in Providence, Rhode Island, from a viewing spot in San Francisco. This is the clearest image ever taken in visible light of our favorite dwarf planet and its largest companion.
Scientists using the Gemini Observatory used the “speckle method” to obtain this image, which involves taking a lot of snapshots and then stitching them together. Each picture was a 60 millisecond exposure, or about 1/20th of a second. Instead of using adaptive optics to cancel out Earth’s atmospheric turbulence and other artifacts, the speckle method combines the light from each object in each picture, which remains constant. 
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Gemini Observatory Takes Sharpest Ground-Based Images Ever Of Pluto And Charon

http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1112701833/gemini-pluto-charon-092712/

September 27, 2012 - redOrbit

Pluto, the dwarf planet (ex-number-nine), and its larger companion Charon, recently posed for astronomers. Using the high-resolution Gemini North 8-meter telescope along with reconstructive speckle imaging, astronomers were able to capture the twin extrasolar planetary system, providing the sharpest ground-based images of the deep-space dwellers.

Sharpest-ever ground-based images of Pluto and Charon

http://tinyurl.com/8dfp3y4

September 27, 2012 - Astronomy.com

The data from Gemini North verified and refined previous orbital characteristics for the dwarf planet and its largest moon while revealing the pair’s precise diameters.

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Hawaii telescope snaps best photo yet of Pluto from Earth

http://tinyurl.com/8b4ppaz

September 26, 2012 - NBC News

A ground-based telescope has snapped the sharpest image yet of Pluto and its moon Charon taken in visible light from Earth.

The Gemini North 8-meter telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawai'i captured the photo of the dwarf planet and its companion using a technique called reconstructive speckle imaging. The resulting image clearly shows the two bodies, which are nearly 3.7 billion miles (6 billion kilometers) from the sun — about 40 times the distance between the sun and Earth.
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Researchers Present the Sharpest Image of Pluto Ever Taken from Earth

http://tinyurl.com/bpan7yo

September 26, 2012 - UniverseToday
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After taking a series of quick “snapshots” of Pluto and Charon using a recently-developed camera called the Differential Speckle Survey Instrument (DSSI), which was mounted on the Gemini Observatory’s 8-meter telescope in Hawaii, researchers combined them into a single image while canceling out the noise caused by turbulence and optical aberrations. This “speckle imaging” technique resulted in an incredibly clear, crisp image of the distant pair of worlds — especially considering that 1. it was made with images taken from the ground, 2. Pluto is small, and 3. Pluto is very, very far away.
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Missing supernova mystery solved

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/09/07/3584619.htm

September 7, 2012 - ABC Science
A large number of dying stars called core-collapse supernovae are not detected because they are obscured by galactic dust, say astronomers.
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Ryder and colleagues used the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii to peer through the obscuring dust, looking for the missing supernovae at infrared wavelengths, which penetrates dust better than optical light.
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Vanishing dust belt around star baffles scientists

Vanishing dust belt around star baffles scientists
July 4, 2012 - MSNBC
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Observations by the Gemini South telescope in Chile and several other instruments found that the infrared light emitted by the dust had dropped by more than half. In subsequent studies, the amount of dust around the star had all but vanished, dropping by a factor of nearly 30 in two years.
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Dust Today, Gone Tomorrow: Astronomers Discover Houdini-Like Vanishing Act in Space

Dust Today, Gone Tomorrow: Astronomers Discover Houdini-Like Vanishing Act in Space
July 5, 2012 - ScienceDaily
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The dust had been present around the star since at least 1983 (no one had observed the star in the infrared before then), and it continued to glow brightly in the infrared for 25 years. In 2009, it started to dim. By 2010, the dust emission was gone; the astronomers observed the star twice that year from the Gemini Observatory in Chile, six months apart. An infrared image obtained by the Gemini telescope as recently as May 1 of this year confirmed that the warm dust has now been gone for two-and-a-half years.
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Planet-Forming Disk Vanishes Into Thin Air

Planet-Forming Disk Vanishes Into Thin Air
July 5, 2012 - Wired News
Some 460 light-years away in the constellation Centaurus, a thick disk of dust swirled around a young star named TYC 8241 2652 1, where rocky planets like our own were arising. Then, in less than 2 years, the disk just vanished. That’s the unprecedented observation astronomers report in a new study, out today. Even more intriguing: The same thing may have happened in our own solar system.
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Planet-forming disk abruptly shuts down

Planet-forming disk abruptly shuts down
July 6, 2012 - Astronomy.com
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Astronomers first saw the dusty disk at TYC 8241 2652 using NASA's Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) in 1983, and it remained brightly glowing for 25 years. Like Earth, warm dust absorbs the energy of visible starlight (sunlight) and reradiates that heat energy as infrared radiation. An infrared image obtained at the Gemini Telescope in Chile on May 1, 2012 confirmed that the warm dust has now been gone for 2.5 years.
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Planet-forming dust disc surrounding distant star disappears

Planet-forming dust disc surrounding distant star disappears
July 5, 2012 - Los Angeles Times
A disc of planet-forming dust around a distant star has disappeared unexpectedly, leaving astronomers scratching their heads and questioning current theories of how planets are formed. "It's like the classic magician's trick: Now you see it, now you don't," said astronomer Carl Melis of UC San Diego, who led the team that discovered the phenomenon. "Only in this case, we're talking about enough dust to fill an inner solar system and it is really gone." The team has proposed several possible explanations for the disappearance, but "none are really compelling," Melis said.
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The team reported Thursday in the journal Nature that they reexamined the star in 2008 using the Gemini South Observatory in Chile and found the same infrared signature observed in 1983. But when they looked at it again in 2009 with NASA's orbiting Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, about two-thirds of the dust had disappeared....

How did an entire star system's worth of dust just vanish? Scientists baffled

How did an entire star system's worth of dust just vanish? Scientists baffled
July 5, 2012 - Christian Science Monitor
In a cosmic case of "now-you-see-it, now-you-don't," a brilliant disk of dust around a Sun-like star has suddenly vanished, and the scientists who observed the disappearance aren't sure about what happened.
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An image taken May 1 by the Gemini observatory at La Serena, Chile, confirmed that the disk was gone.
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Celestial Tapestry is Born of Uncertain Parentage

Celestial tapestry is born of uncertain parentage

May 17, 2012 - Phys.org

A new Legacy Image from the Gemini Observatory reveals the remarkable complexity of the planetary nebula Sharpless 2-71 (Sh 2-71). Embroiled in a bit of controversy over its “birth parents” the nebula likely resulted from interactions between a pair of two old and dying stars. Legacy images like this one share the stunning beauty of the universe as revealed by the twin 8-meter Gemini telescopes in Hawai‘i and Chile.
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Space Picture This Week

Birth Right?
May 18, 2012 - National Geographic
The dusty golden glow of the planetary nebula known as Sharpless 2-71 is seen in a newly released picture from the Gemini North observatory in Hawaii.
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Gemini Announces New Discovery

Gemini Announces New Discovery

May 17, 2012 - West Hawaii Today
Gemini astronomers used the Mauna Kea telescope to get a new picture of a previously studied planetary nebula, and the image is generating renewed study of the complex celestial phenomenon.
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First light for the Gemini Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics System

February 14, 2012 - SPIE Newsroom
A new generation of adaptive optics has started to produce the first-ever high-angular resolution images over a larger field of view.
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Defeating Hubble, from the ground!

February 2, 2012 - ScienceBlogs.com
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Just a couple of months ago, Gemini South Observatory released their first light image from GeMS/GSAOI, the world's most advanced adaptive optics system, attached to the 8-meter Gemini Telescope. And wouldn't you know which object they happened to take a look at for their very first image?
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A Telescope as Sharp as Hubble — but on the Ground Read more: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2105816,00.html#ixzz1lpCFwBCL

February 2, 2012 - Time.com
Most people think that the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is the most powerful stargazing system in the world. It's understandable, given the astounding images and spectacular science the instrument has been delivering since it went into full operation back in 1993.

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But there's another way: a technology known as adaptive optics (AO) can de-blur the vision of a ground-based telescope — and astronomers at the 26-ish-foot (8-ish-meter) Gemini South telescope in Chile have debuted the most powerful AO system to date. According to astronomer Francois Rigaut, who led the team that built the new hardware, its images rival the Hubble's for sharpness, and in a press release, Matt Mountain, director of the Hubble's home base, the Space Telescope Science Institute, called the image quality "incredible."

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Gemini optics show unprecedented views of stars

January 20, 2012 - msnbc.com
Stars viewed by an observatory in South America have just lost their twinkle. Images from this ground-based telescope are brighter and clearer than ever before, thanks to a new instrument on the Gemini South observatory that reduces the blurring, or twinkle, caused by Earth's atmosphere.
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Telescope Gets New Gear to Bring Stars Into Focus

January 19, 2012 - Space.com
Stars viewed by an observatory in South America have just lost their twinkle. Images from this ground-based telescope are brighter and clearer than ever before, thanks to a new instrument on the Gemini South observatory that reduces the blurring, or twinkle, caused by Earth's atmosphere.
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Gemini Adaptive Optics System Revolutionizes Astrophotography

January 9, 2012 - Universe Today
When it comes to astrophotography, most of us would think that space-based telescopes like the Hubble are the epitome of imagining. However, there’s something new to be said about being “grounded”. On December 16, 2011, the Gemini South telescope in Chile revealed its first wide-field, ultra-sharp image… the product of a decade of hard work. By employing a new generation of adaptive optics (AO), the scope produced an incredible look into the densely concentrated globular cluster, NGC 288, and captured stars at close to the theoretical resolution limit of Gemini’s massive 8-meter mirror.
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Gemini Observatory's revolutionary instrument propels astronomical imaging to new extremes

January 6, 2012 - Astronomy.com
On December 16, 2011, a decade of hard work culminated at the Gemini South telescope in Chile when a next-generation adaptive optics (AO) system produced its first ultra-sharp wide-field image. The first target image showed a portion of a dense cluster of stars called NGC 288. This first-light image reveals details at nearly the theoretical limit of Gemini’s 8-meter mirror over an unprecedented large patch of the night sky.
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Gemini’s twin telescopes reboot

January 18, 2012 - Nature
The Gemini Observatory’s star has been slow to rise. The publicly funded observatory boasts two of the world’s largest telescopes, and offers a rare opportunity to watch both the northern and southern skies from sites in Hawaii and in Chile. Yet it has lagged in terms of scientific productivity since it opened in 2000, and millions of dollars have been spent on overambitious, highly specialized instruments that were ultimately cancelled. “It felt like a child who had gone astray,” says Frederic Chaffee, who witnessed Gemini’s struggles while director of the rival Keck Observatory on Hawaii’s Mauna Kea. “It was frustrating to watch.”
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La nuova era dell’ottica adattiva

January 9, 2012 - Media.INAF (Italy)
Per l’ ottica adattiva si apre un nuovo capitolo. Meno di un mese fa, dopo un decennio di intensi lavori, sono infatti iniziate al Gemini South Telescope in Cile le prime osservazioni ufficiali con un nuovo sistema, denominato Gemini Multi-conjugate adaptive optics System (GeMS), capace di ampliare notevolmente risoluzione e campo di vista delle immagini ottenute con questa tecnica. I primi test erano cominciati all’inizio dell’anno scorso, e ora ecco arrivare i risultati sperati, come si vede dall’immagine a lato, nella quale l’ammasso globulare NGC 288 rivela dettagli prima non visibili da terra.
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Our Picks of Best Space and Astronomy Images from 2011

December 28, 2011 - Universe Today
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A gorgeous new look at the “Southern Cliff” in the Lagoon Nebula from the Gemini South Observatory.
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Are We Trading Away the Education of Future Astronomers?

December 23, 2011 - ScienceBlogs
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Right now, there are a number of ground-based astronomy projects currently underway that are doing some truly amazing things. The image above, of the distant cluster Abell 3827, was taken by the ground-based Gemini Observatory, where it was discovered that this galactic giant has the mass of 30 trillion Suns, making it the largest galaxy in our local Universe (i.e., within 1.5 billion light-years).

The twin Gemini Observatories -- one in Hawaii, above, and the other in Chile -- are two of the largest, most advanced astronomical facilities in the world. Getting observing time on Gemini, as you can well imagine, is extraordinarily competitive, as there's competition not just among extragalactic astronomers, but among those who study stars and nebulae within our own galaxy. With the Gemini telescope and its adaptive optics technology, incredible detail of young stars within a spectacular nebula -- like the Orion Nebula -- can be imaged like never before.
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Gemini Observatory's Revolutionary Instrument Propels Astronomical Imaging to New Extremes

January 5, 2012 - SpaceRef
On December 16, 2011, a decade of hard work culminated at the Gemini South telescope in Chile, when a next-generation adaptive optics (AO) system produced its first ultra-sharp wide field image. The first target image showed a portion of a dense cluster of stars called NGC 288. This first light image reveals details at nearly the theoretical limit of Gemini's large 8-meter mirror over an unprecedented large patch of the night sky.
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