June 27, 2008 - New York Times
Siamese twin galaxies. Ninety million light-years away from us, these two, almost identical spiral galaxies, NGC5427, left, and NGC 5426, look like they're doing a do-si-do in the Virgo constellation. The image was taken by the Gemini South telescope in Chile. Although they look like they're just passing by each other, the gravitational tugging has already begun to reshape the two galaxies and set off a wave of star formation. In about 100 million years, the two will merge into one elliptical galaxy.
(Editor's Note: A previous version of this slide show referred incorrectly to the position of the galaxies. They are 90 million light-years away from us, not 90 million light-years apart.)
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
June 22, 2008
June 27, 2008 - MSNBC
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For a different kind of celestial crack-up, check out the Gemini Observatory's picture of a collision between two nearly identical spiral galaxies in the constellation Virgo, 90 million light-years from Earth. Astronomers have charted the gravitational interaction between NGC 5426 and NGC 5427, and say the galactic dance may serve as a preview of our own Milky Way galaxy's encounter with the neighboring Andromeda Galaxy billions of years from now.
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For a different kind of celestial crack-up, check out the Gemini Observatory's picture of a collision between two nearly identical spiral galaxies in the constellation Virgo, 90 million light-years from Earth. Astronomers have charted the gravitational interaction between NGC 5426 and NGC 5427, and say the galactic dance may serve as a preview of our own Milky Way galaxy's encounter with the neighboring Andromeda Galaxy billions of years from now.
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Siamese Twin Galaxies In A Gravitational Embrace
June 22, 2008 - ScienceDaily
In what appears to be a masterful illusion, astronomers at Gemini Observatory have imaged two nearly identical spiral galaxies in Virgo, 90 million light years distant, in the early stages of a gentle gravitational embrace.
The new image was obtained at the Gemini South telescope in Chile using GMOS, the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph.
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Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Three new projects aim to capture a first: an image of a planet orbiting a star outside the solar system
June 20, 2008 - Science News
In the 13 years since the first discovery of a planet orbiting a sunlike star outside our solar system, astronomers have found about 300 such “extrasolar” planets, but still have no pictures of any of them.
These 300 orbs have only been detected indirectly: by the wobble of a parent star as an orbiting planet tugs on it, for example, or by minieclipses a planet generates as it passes in front of its star. But none of the current methods allow an astronomer to actually see the planet. With the first optical system devoted to extrasolar imaging set to begin surveying the heavens this summer — and with two other systems scheduled to come online by early 2011 — astronomers could get their first real image of such a planet within the next three years, and perhaps much sooner. “The pace is accelerating,” says Michael Liu of the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
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Efforts to image a planet beyond the solar system are heating up on two mountaintop observatories in Chile. Early last year, a new instrument arrived at the Gemini South Observatory atop Cerro Pachon. The Near-Infrared Coronagraphic Imager is the first adaptive optics system designed solely to image planets. “We’ve had general purpose adaptive optics instruments, but NICI is the first built from end to end for this express goal,” Liu say.
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Two successors to NICI are now in development. The Gemini Planet Imager is expected to begin operation at Gemini South by 2011, around the same time that a similar device, called SPHERE, for Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet Research, is installed at another Chilean observatory, the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope atop Paranal.
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In the 13 years since the first discovery of a planet orbiting a sunlike star outside our solar system, astronomers have found about 300 such “extrasolar” planets, but still have no pictures of any of them.
These 300 orbs have only been detected indirectly: by the wobble of a parent star as an orbiting planet tugs on it, for example, or by minieclipses a planet generates as it passes in front of its star. But none of the current methods allow an astronomer to actually see the planet. With the first optical system devoted to extrasolar imaging set to begin surveying the heavens this summer — and with two other systems scheduled to come online by early 2011 — astronomers could get their first real image of such a planet within the next three years, and perhaps much sooner. “The pace is accelerating,” says Michael Liu of the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
...
Efforts to image a planet beyond the solar system are heating up on two mountaintop observatories in Chile. Early last year, a new instrument arrived at the Gemini South Observatory atop Cerro Pachon. The Near-Infrared Coronagraphic Imager is the first adaptive optics system designed solely to image planets. “We’ve had general purpose adaptive optics instruments, but NICI is the first built from end to end for this express goal,” Liu say.
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Two successors to NICI are now in development. The Gemini Planet Imager is expected to begin operation at Gemini South by 2011, around the same time that a similar device, called SPHERE, for Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet Research, is installed at another Chilean observatory, the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope atop Paranal.
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Thursday, May 29, 2008
International Gemini Observatory Captures Birth of a Supernova
May 28, 2008 - National Science Foundation
Astronomers have before observed the aftermath of spectacular stellar explosions known as supernovae. But last week researchers for the first time witnessed a star dying in real time.
While observing supernova 2007uy with the Swift X-ray Telescope, Alicia Soderberg and Edo Berger from Princeton University discovered a mysterious X-ray flash elsewhere in the galaxy NGC 2770 located about 90 million light years away. Within a few hours observatories around the world scrambled to study its light.
In a rapid sequence of events, the Gemini North telescope was able to capture and dissect the object's light in a set of optical spectra that contains the earliest spectrum ever obtained of a massive star ending its life in a supernova explosion outside of our galaxy's neighborhood.
"We were in the right place at the right time with the right telescope on January 9, and witnessed history," said Soderberg. "Thanks to the unique capabilities of the Swift satellite and the rapid response of the Gemini telescope, we were able to observe a star in the act of dying."
The result of this rapid response, following the Jan. 9, 2008 discovery, allowed Gemini to provide time-critical spectroscopic observations of the young supernova and the development of the explosion in a unique sequence of optical spectra using Gemini North telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii.
For more information, go to the Gemini Observatory Press Release.
Astronomers have before observed the aftermath of spectacular stellar explosions known as supernovae. But last week researchers for the first time witnessed a star dying in real time.
While observing supernova 2007uy with the Swift X-ray Telescope, Alicia Soderberg and Edo Berger from Princeton University discovered a mysterious X-ray flash elsewhere in the galaxy NGC 2770 located about 90 million light years away. Within a few hours observatories around the world scrambled to study its light.
In a rapid sequence of events, the Gemini North telescope was able to capture and dissect the object's light in a set of optical spectra that contains the earliest spectrum ever obtained of a massive star ending its life in a supernova explosion outside of our galaxy's neighborhood.
"We were in the right place at the right time with the right telescope on January 9, and witnessed history," said Soderberg. "Thanks to the unique capabilities of the Swift satellite and the rapid response of the Gemini telescope, we were able to observe a star in the act of dying."
The result of this rapid response, following the Jan. 9, 2008 discovery, allowed Gemini to provide time-critical spectroscopic observations of the young supernova and the development of the explosion in a unique sequence of optical spectra using Gemini North telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii.
For more information, go to the Gemini Observatory Press Release.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Couple make rare find: a supernova ready to flame out
Los Angeles Times - May 22, 2008
A pair of young astronomers have captured for the first time the earliest death throes of a supernova, verifying a decades-old theory about how the giant stars commit stellar suicide.
While scanning a galaxy 90 million light-years away, the soon-to-be-married couple noticed a sudden eruption of X-rays from a spot in the constellation Lynx.
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The discovery was the beginning of a frantic quest to confirm the observation.
First, Soderberg, who received her doctorate in astrophysics from Caltech in 2007 and is also a Carnegie-Princeton fellow, drafted a proposal asking for confirmation from the Gemini Observatory on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. She also began writing the scientific paper that will be published today in the journal Nature.
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A pair of young astronomers have captured for the first time the earliest death throes of a supernova, verifying a decades-old theory about how the giant stars commit stellar suicide.
While scanning a galaxy 90 million light-years away, the soon-to-be-married couple noticed a sudden eruption of X-rays from a spot in the constellation Lynx.
...
The discovery was the beginning of a frantic quest to confirm the observation.
First, Soderberg, who received her doctorate in astrophysics from Caltech in 2007 and is also a Carnegie-Princeton fellow, drafted a proposal asking for confirmation from the Gemini Observatory on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. She also began writing the scientific paper that will be published today in the journal Nature.
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Observation Of X-rays From Birth Of Supernova Leads To All-out Effort To Record Stellar Death
ScienceDaily - May 21, 2008
The lucky capture in January of an X-ray outburst from the very beginning of a supernova allowed astronomers around the world to quickly follow up with ground-based telescopes and collect a wealth of new information on early processes in stellar explosions, according to a paper newly submitted to The Astrophysical Journal.
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Once the supernova was announced widely, astronomers at many observatories turned their telescopes on SN 2008D. Modjaz helped organize observations by the Mt. Hopkins telescope in Arizona and the Gemini South telescope in Chile, while UC Berkeley professor of astronomy Alex Filippenko organized observations at the University of California's Lick Observatory, on Mt. Hamilton near San Jose, where his Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope (KAIT) had independently captured the visible light from the supernova.
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The lucky capture in January of an X-ray outburst from the very beginning of a supernova allowed astronomers around the world to quickly follow up with ground-based telescopes and collect a wealth of new information on early processes in stellar explosions, according to a paper newly submitted to The Astrophysical Journal.
...
Once the supernova was announced widely, astronomers at many observatories turned their telescopes on SN 2008D. Modjaz helped organize observations by the Mt. Hopkins telescope in Arizona and the Gemini South telescope in Chile, while UC Berkeley professor of astronomy Alex Filippenko organized observations at the University of California's Lick Observatory, on Mt. Hamilton near San Jose, where his Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope (KAIT) had independently captured the visible light from the supernova.
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