Discoveries using the telescopes on Mauna Kea

[TomK]

On PBS Hawaii tonight (Weds 29th May at 9 pm) Nova discusses Einstein's theory of general relativity. This is well timed in a couple of ways: 1) it's the 100-year anniversary of the first confirmation of the theory by observing the measured positions of stars during a solar eclipse and how they were affected by the sun's gravitational field and 2) it comes shortly after the images of the black hole Powehi with which observatories on the Big Island played a crucial role - one of the most spectacular confirmations ever of Einstein's theory.

[TomK]

On PBS Hawaii tonight (Weds 29th May at 9 pm) Nova discusses Einstein's theory of general relativity. This is well timed in a couple of ways: 1) it's the 100-year anniversary of the first confirmation of the theory by observing the measured positions of stars during a solar eclipse and how they were affected by the sun's gravitational field and 2) it comes shortly after the images of the black hole Powehi with which observatories on the Big Island played a crucial role - one of the most spectacular confirmations ever of Einstein's theory.

PS. Right after Nova is another show about Einstein's theory of relatively with Brian Greene; Light Falls.

https://www.pbshawaii.org/light-falls/

[TomK]

"Subaru Telescope captures 1800 new supernovae"

The Subaru Telescope on Mauna Kea has been used in a campaign to detect and observe supernovae in extremely distant galaxies in an attempt to better understand the early universe. Although supernovae come in a few different categories, each one in a certain category behaves in a very similar manner, so once you determine the type, it's well-known characteristics can be used determine things such as the distance to its host galaxy. These are the types of observations that were used to determine that not only is the universe is expanding, but the expansion is actually accelerating.

As a side note and to put this in context, a galaxy like ours is expected to have one supernova every hundred years or so, and in fact, we're well overdue for one. It's been over 400 years since we last saw a supernova in the Milky Way.

https://www.naoj.org/Pressrelease/2019/05/29/index.html

"As a result, the team identified 5 super luminous supernovae, and about 400 Type Ia supernovae. Fifty-eight of these Type Ia supernovae were located more than 8 billion light years away from Earth. In comparison, it took researchers using the Hubble Space Telescope about 10 years to discover a total of 50 supernovae located more than 8 billion light years away from Earth."

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

This is posted in advance of the TMT’s construction on Mauna Kea, as an example of what will be possible once the telescope goes into operation:

Astronomers Snap a Rare Picture of Two Baby Planets

Scientists have never actually seen the vast majority of the 4,000 exoplanets, or planets orbiting stars other than our own, discovered in the last three decades. Instead, the existence of the planets is calculated from indirect observations...
The Very Large Telescope imaged Planets PDS 70b and PDS 70c about 370 light years away creating a gap in the gas and dust disk around their star.

Other next-generation telescopes either proposed or under construction, including the Giant Magellan Telescope, the Thirty Meter Telescope and the European Extremely Large Telescope will also allow us to see the thousands of exoplanets in our galaxy just little bit more clearly in the near future.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-new...180972357/

[TomK]

"Europa's ocean may be more Earthlike than previously thought"

https://newatlas.com/europa-ocean-earthlike-salt/60102/

"A new study by researchers at Caltech and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, indicates that the subterranean world ocean on Jupiter's moon Europa may be more Earthlike than scientists believed. Visible-light spectrographic analysis show that yellow stains on Europa's icy crust are common table salt, suggesting that the Europan ocean may be similar to its terrestrial counterparts."

[...]

"This has come from the W. M. Keck Observatory atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii. By looking at high-resolution spectrograms, the team found that the signatures of magnesium salts disappeared, indicating that the previous findings were in error."

Next article in the pipeline:

"Europa's sea-dwelling aliens suffer from diet-based high blood pressure".

[dan d]

Not if the aliens dont drink the water eh?


HPP

[TomK]

I thought some of you might be interested in this short (~8 min) PBS about observing an extremely distant quasar using the Gemini North telescope on Mauna Kea.

https://www.pbs.org/video/the-mysterious...se-fxhws8/

[TomK]

"Breakthrough: UH team successfully locates incoming asteroid"

Although this isn't directly related to Mauna Kea, it involves UH's Institute for Astronomy and telescopes on Mauna Loa and Haleakala. For the first time, astronomers have been able to predict the impact site of an incoming asteroid allowing enough warning time to potentially evacuate that site. Although this is not foolproof, for instance, incoming asteroids coming from the direction of the sun may not be detectable at all, it is a major step forward in planetary protection.

Press release: http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/info/press-rel...AS_2019MO/

"Scientists estimate that asteroid 2019 MO was much smaller, only about 4 meters (13 feet) across. An asteroid that small would likely burn up entirely as it enters Earth's atmosphere. The ATLAS telescopes can detect even such small objects about half a day before they arrive. It will find larger objects, like the one that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia in 2013, a few days before they impact. That asteroid was about 20 meters across, or the size of a house. For the first time in history, astronomers can provide sufficient warning to move people away from the impact site."

[kander]

I love this kind of science.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

For the first time, astronomers have been able to predict the impact site of an incoming asteroid

That’s a great new development in technology.
Detection of an uncharted Earth bound asteroid, at high speed, must be exceptionally difficult. An asteroid would have little movement across the background of stars when it’s headed straight toward us, right?

This is exciting news on many levels. The improvement in finding even small objects in space and predicting their path, which could result in improved safety for small populations potentially affected by small asteroids, and broader regions across the Earth should a large object be headed this way.