Posts: 10,218
Threads: 344
Joined: Apr 2009
Seems the search for the hypothesized Planet 9 is creating some "shocking" news:
https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1...hael-brown
"
Planet Nine SHOCK: Telescopes in Hawaii are hunting down mystery planet larger than Earth"
A couple of weeks ago, the same tabloid published this:
"
Planet Nine SHOCK: Astronomer explains effect mystery Planet 9 has on entire solar system"
In reality, yes, the search is still on for Planet 9 using at least one MK telescope although there have been recent papers suggesting it doen't exist.
Posts: 5,640
Threads: 101
Joined: Dec 2008
Don’t bother clicking on airwrpogparking’s link, it’s just random nonsense. As usual.
Posts: 1,123
Threads: 68
Joined: Mar 2015
Posts: 10,218
Threads: 344
Joined: Apr 2009
Dan - unfortunately not, at least from my understanding of the actual paper. I think the confusion comes from the Very Large Array (VLA) and the VLBA (Very Large Baseline Array) which does have a dish on Mauna Kea, both being run by the NRAO. The paper suggests the observations came from the VLA alone (I might be wrong). The paper mentions VLBI (very long baseline interferometry). Interferometry is what both the VLA and VLBA do, but think it refers to the VLA being used with its longest baseline. The VLA is in New Mexico.
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1904.01365.pdf
Posts: 1,123
Threads: 68
Joined: Mar 2015
Thanks Tom, i wasnt sure, as u dont like a non hawaii astro post. Forgive me if i over stepped.
Aloha
HPP
HPP
Posts: 10,218
Threads: 344
Joined: Apr 2009
Dan - it's not that I don't like non-Hawaii astro posts, but the forum rules say posts should be related to Puna or Hawaii. You agreed to that when you signed up to PW, but no need to ask me for forgiveness, it's not my forum.
Posts: 11,018
Threads: 750
Joined: Sep 2012
The Subaru Telescope on Mauna Kea is looking for funding partners in exchange for scheduled viewing time on the telescope. Apparently, huge profits in the observing-outer-space-industry are not as great as some people would have you believe. However, if they read the local newspaper (or Punaweb) they may make a new discovery about Mauna Kea.
The 20-year-old telescope costs about $16 million a year to operate, and employs 92 people in Hilo. Yoshida said NAOJ wants partners to contribute a few million dollars a year in return for use of the telescope.
https://www.westhawaiitoday.com/2019/04/...-partners/
"I'm at that stage in life where I stay out of discussions. Even if you say 1+1=5, you're right - have fun." - Keanu Reeves
Posts: 10,218
Threads: 344
Joined: Apr 2009
Since we're discussing Subaru:
"
Jupiter's Atmosphere Heats up under Solar Wind"
Similar to Earth, the interaction of the solar wind and Jupter's magnetic field causes aurorae at its north and south poles. However, the effect is much greater and actually heats up its atmosphere, as discovered from mid-infrared observations at Subaru on MK.
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/899/ju...olar-wind/
"
Auroras at Earth's poles (known as the aurora borealis at the North Pole and aurora australis at the South Pole) occur when the energetic particles blown out from the Sun (the solar wind) interact with and heat up the gases in the upper atmosphere. The same thing happens at Jupiter, but the new observations show the heating goes two or three times deeper down into its atmosphere than on Earth, into the lower level of Jupiter's upper atmosphere, or stratosphere."
[...]
"
"What is startling about the results is that we were able to associate for the first time the variations in solar wind and the response in the stratosphere - and that the response to these variations is so quick for such a large area," said JPL's Glenn Orton, co-author and part of the observing team."
Posts: 10,218
Threads: 344
Joined: Apr 2009
First "image" of a black hole to be released
Tomorrow (10th April) at 3 am HST the first results of the Event Horizon Telescope will be released to the public. The telescope actually consists of eight separate radio/submillimeter observatories around the planet that use a process called interferometry to synthesize a radio telescope with the diameter of the Earth. Two of the observatories are on Mauna Kea, the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) and the Submillimter Array (SMA).
Obviously, you can't see a black hole directly as no light can escape from one, but the idea of the telescope is to image the material surrounding the black hole that's being pulled into it by its intense gravitational field, i.e., the event horizon.
Details available via
https://eventhorizontelescope.org/
