Discoveries using the telescopes on Mauna Kea

[TomK]

Here's the latest one using Subaru data:

http://phys.org/news/2016-08-astronomers...ember.html

With respect to the researchers, I have to admit I find it particularly underwhelming.

[TomK]

"Astronomers identify a young heavyweight star in the Milky Way"

http://phys.org/news/2016-08-astronomers...milky.html

The artist's impression is very nice if somewhat idealistic, but as the article suggests, the formation of massive stars is a difficult area to study as they form very quickly, live for a short time and die suddenly, albeit spectacularly.

The research involved the Submillimeter Array (SMA) on Mauna Kea (https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/sma/)

[TomK]

"Cosmic neighbors inhibit star formation, even in the early-universe"

A discovery using data from the Mauna Keck Observatory and the VLT in Chile:

http://phys.org/news/2016-08-cosmic-neig...ation.html

http://www.keckobservatory.org/recent/en...ever_found

[TomK]

A dark matter galaxy.

Both the Keck observatory and Gemini North on Mauna Kea were used to study Dragonfly 44, a faint galaxy which turns out to be about the size of our Milky Way Galaxy, but consists of 99.99% dark matter which cannot be detected directly.

http://phys.org/news/2016-08-scientists-...alaxy.html

http://gemini.edu/node/12559

http://www.keckobservatory.org/recent/en...ark_matter

[Guest]

8+ Posts in a row, yawn. Its time you get your fanny back over to that blog again. Let us know about it and then we can just check it out if we are interest.

ETA : forgot ... " cheese ! "

[PaulW]

Thanks Tom, always great to see how Hawaii is at the center of Astronomy

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

a faint galaxy which turns out to be about the size of our Milky Way Galaxy, but consists of 99.99% dark matter

Thanks Tom, that's an incredible discovery. Considering how much of the universe is made up of dark matter, it's hard to imagine what other formations of dark matter may exist all around us.

Is this the largest dark matter galaxy so far detected? Can any of the other telescopes on Mauna Kea detect and locate dark matter formations? Would the TMT?

- Be pleasant to inefficient workers; give them undeserved promotions. - Work slowly. - Refer all matters to committees for "further study and consideration. - Hold conferences. - Make travel as inconvenient as possible. - Haggle over precise wordings of communications. - Advocate “caution.” Be “reasonable” and avoid haste. (Excerpts from the WWII OSS Simple Sabotage Manual)

[Eric1600]

quote:

---

Originally posted by HereOnThePrimalEdge
Thanks Tom, that's an incredible discovery. Considering how much of the universe is made up of dark matter, it's hard to imagine what other formations of dark matter may exist all around us.

Is this the largest dark matter galaxy so far detected? Can any of the other telescopes on Mauna Kea detect and locate dark matter formations? Would the TMT?

---

Dark matter doesn't interact with electromagnetism so it is hard to detect. In order to find it the telescopes map star velocities and look for unexplained accelerations. One of the biggest data sets is SLUGGS which was compiled by KECK and SUBARU http://sluggs.swin.edu.au/Start.html Then they apply state-of-the-art simulators to try and add in dark matter to understand where it might be. Also see http://www.keckobservatory.org/recent/en...conspiracy

The TMT will have the unique ability to see further into the past to understand how dark matter might form. One specific TMT goal is to study very distant “standard candle” supernovae that are magnified by the strong gravity of nearby galaxy clusters. The properties of these supernovae will allow TMT to test competing theories of Dark Energy and to determine how Dark Energy and Dark Matter have governed the evolution of our universe over cosmic time.

I'm sure the Dragonfly 44 galaxy will quickly be added to the list of targets.

quote:

---

Dragonfly 44 is one of 47 ultradiffuse, or "fluffy" galaxies that Pieter van Dokkum of Yale University and colleagues found in the Coma Cluster, a group of at least 1,000 galaxies around 300 million light-years from Earth. This distance is easily close enough for a telescope to see; the Hubble Space Telescope can see billions of light-years away. But no one had noticed these galaxies hiding in the dark before. Dragonfly 44 was one of the largest and brightest galaxies they found. While it's as big as the Milky Way, it only emits about 1 percent as much light.

---

http://www.space.com/33850-weird-galaxy-...atter.html

[pahoated]

This really shows the observatories on Mauna Kea are mainly data acquisition stations, not centers of employment and almost entirely for the use of people that don't live on the island.

The multi-national team did book 6 days viewing time, they probably flew a few members of the team in during the viewing time, then they pumped a few terabytes of data to all the team members. What did Hawaii island get out of it? A handful of astro-tourists for a week, probably didn't spend any money on sight-seeing or shopping.

There is no doubt of the existing observatories, their value or continued value. However, the way they operate is evidence the ploy they are huge contributors to the local economy is very over-inflated. They are a lot like vacation rentals, which is important to the land lord but can be kind of a pain for neighbors.

If you notice, Keck did not discover the galaxy, that was done with the Dragonfly array.
Scientists initially spotted Dragonfly 44 with the Dragonfly Telephoto Array
http://www.dunlap.utoronto.ca/wp-content...t-2014.jpg

This is a very small telescope able to image very early galaxies. The concept is scalable to individual fiber-optic cable. It means very powerful, very small, very lightweight telescopes.

The list of authors and where the most money goes:
"Van Dokkum, Shany Danieli, Allison Merritt, and Lamiya Mowla of Yale, Jean Brodie of the University of California Observatories, Charlie Conroy of Harvard, Aaron Romanowsky of San Jose State University, and Jielai Zhang of the University of Toronto."

Keck is doing great work, capitalizing their sweet location to the max.


*Japanese tourist on bus through Pahoa, "Is this still America?*

[Eric1600]

Yes it was cataloged by another telescope, but the dark matter research was done from Hawaii data. Telescopes are designed to compliment each other, which is why the TMT on Mauna Kea is important.

Surprise! People from all over the world benefit from the observatories. You should be glad that this can be done remotely so there aren't tons of cars driving up the mountain every night. It's better for the environment.

I also personally know Hawaiian grown astronomers that are using KECK data too, so you really have a moot point. Everyone benefits.

Ok, I'm done feeding the troll.