July 25, 2011 - Astronomy Now
A new planetary nebula, recently discovered thanks to the combined efforts of amateur and professional astronomers and within sight of the Kepler spacecraft, could hold the key to understanding how our own Sun's life will end.
The detection of the nebula, Kronberger 61 (Kn 61), along with a striking new image of it from the Gemini Observatory, was presented this week at the International Astronomical Union symposium in Tenerife. It's named after its discoverer, Matthias Kronberger, a member of a group of amateur astronomers called the Deep Sky Hunters, who devote their spare time to hunting through existing datasets to find objects like this. Such a search is difficult because they are "extremely rare and each, a valuable gem," according to George Jacoby of the Giant Magellan Telescope Organization and the Carnegie Observatories.
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Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Team aims to score cosmic goal
July 25, 2011 - MSNBC
Professional and amateur astronomers are teaming up to study a cosmic "soccer ball" with a tricky goal in mind: understanding how the death throes of a star are affected by the company it keeps.
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Kronberger 61 is worth noting for aesthetic reasons alone: The image above, captured by the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii, highlights the nebula's emissions from twice-ionized oxygen. The dying star can be seen as a point of bluish light close to the center of the ball-shaped nebula.
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Professional and amateur astronomers are teaming up to study a cosmic "soccer ball" with a tricky goal in mind: understanding how the death throes of a star are affected by the company it keeps.
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Kronberger 61 is worth noting for aesthetic reasons alone: The image above, captured by the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii, highlights the nebula's emissions from twice-ionized oxygen. The dying star can be seen as a point of bluish light close to the center of the ball-shaped nebula.
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Stunning New Planetary Nebula Unveiled
July 26, 2011 - Wired News
This image of an exquisite puff of interstellar gas, resembling a union of soccer ball and jellyfish, was released July 25 by the Gemini Observatory.
Exhaled by a dying star, the newly-discovered planetary nebula, Kronberger 61, is named for its finder: Austrian Matthias Kronberger, member of the amateur astronomy group Deep Sky Hunters.
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Wednesday, July 13, 2011
July 4: Scientists Discover Oldest Black Hole Using Telescopes on Mauna Kea ShareThis Scientists have discovered one of the oldest objects in the un
July 4, 2011 - Hawaii Public Radio
Scientists have discovered one of the oldest objects in the universe.
It’s what they call a black hole. They found it using two telescopes on Mauna Kea.
The light detected in Hawaii left the black hole 13 billion years ago, says Gemini Observatory scientist Paul Hirst.
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Scientists have discovered one of the oldest objects in the universe.
It’s what they call a black hole. They found it using two telescopes on Mauna Kea.
The light detected in Hawaii left the black hole 13 billion years ago, says Gemini Observatory scientist Paul Hirst.
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Exclusive: Scientist Talks About Mauna Kea Discovery
June 30, 2011 - KITV
This is a rendering, of what scientists call the most distant, and earliest quasar ever discovered. It's a major discovery made by using a telescope high atop Mauna Kea. KITV interview of Paul Hirst, Gemini Observatory. [video/3min.]
This is a rendering, of what scientists call the most distant, and earliest quasar ever discovered. It's a major discovery made by using a telescope high atop Mauna Kea. KITV interview of Paul Hirst, Gemini Observatory. [video/3min.]
Brown dwarfs: the success of failed stars
June 2011 - American Museum of Natural History
The search for the intermediate objects between stars and planets. [video/8min.]
The search for the intermediate objects between stars and planets. [video/8min.]
Friday, July 1, 2011
ULAS J1120+0641 Is The Most Distant Quasar Yet
June 29, 2011 - Science 2.0
A quasar named ULAS J1120+0641, powered by a black hole with a mass two billion times that of the Sun, is by far the brightest object yet discovered in the early Universe - yet.
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The distance to the quasar was determined from observations made with the FORS2 instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) and instruments on the Gemini North Telescope [3]. Because the object is comparatively bright it is possible to take a spectrum of it (which involves splitting the light from the object into its component colours). This technique allowed the astronomers to find out quite a lot about the quasar.
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A quasar named ULAS J1120+0641, powered by a black hole with a mass two billion times that of the Sun, is by far the brightest object yet discovered in the early Universe - yet.
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The distance to the quasar was determined from observations made with the FORS2 instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) and instruments on the Gemini North Telescope [3]. Because the object is comparatively bright it is possible to take a spectrum of it (which involves splitting the light from the object into its component colours). This technique allowed the astronomers to find out quite a lot about the quasar.
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