Discoveries using the telescopes on Mauna Kea

[Guest]

quote:

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Originally posted by Peter Epperson

Beware of the dogma that prevents scientists from exploring alternative views. Science is about keeping an open mind.

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Good luck with that Peter.

From my experience, scientists, the tried and true PhD kine, are often pretty screwed up by the process they go through to get their degree. I have been married to, was raised by, and 60% of my social circle is made up of scientists and I must observe, we're talking great observers, but otherwise, just like so many of the rest of us, they are a down right dysfunctional group if there ever was one.

To ask one to step outside the box, over a line, to see the world without their own preconceived notions, is blasphemy. And OMG will they read you the riot act if ever you were to challenge their preconceived notions.

But hey, when you do find an open minded scientist, one that retains the heart, and has the capacity to acknowledge their own shortcomings, OMG what wonderful people. What wonderful exchanges, insights, and relationships are possible. We have many kindred spirits right here on the island, though I do not think PW is a place they frequent.

[TomK]

Peter - yes, I did watch the video. The electric universe is pseudo-scientific nonsense that has been thoroughly debunked over the decades. Its few predictions have been tested and found not to work and requires Einstein's general theory of relativity of being wrong, which despite thousands of experiments still stands solid. It requires an aether in space which has been looked for and never detected and relies on blatant misinformation, e.g., that neutrinos have not been detected from stars.

Some of this is covered here:

http://www.tim-thompson.com/electric-sun.html
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/nz7ne...-thornhill
https://archive.briankoberlein.com/2014/...index.html (*)

The reason I didn't want to discuss it here is that it has little to do with the MK observatories and is way off-topic for PW. However, I'm sure "hokuili"'s extensive knowledge of astrophysics and insults will show how wrong I am.

(*) "So never let it be said that an astro-scientist has never considered the electric universe model with an open mind. The Electric Universe model is wrong. Provably, clearly and ridiculously wrong."

[TomK]

Getting back on-topic:

New black hole discovered that really shouldn't exist

Observations using the Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea have discovered a massive black hole that's a little surprising - it's too big. There are supermassive black holes in the center of galaxies but these form from several stars plus gas and dust that exists in the center of galaxies. In this case, the black hole is remote and likely formed by a star going supernova, but that shouldn't leave a black hole with a mass of 70 suns.

Likely explanations are a way that black holes form that we don't know about or more than one star was involved in forming the black hole.

https://phys.org/news/2019-11-scientists...-hole.html

"The discovery came as a big surprise. "Black holes of such mass should not even exist in our galaxy, according to most of the current models of stellar evolution," said Prof. LIU. "We thought that very massive stars with the chemical composition typical of our galaxy must shed most of their gas in powerful stellar winds, as they approach the end of their life. Therefore, they should not leave behind such a massive remnant. LB-1 is twice as massive as what we thought possible. Now theorists will have to take up the challenge of explaining its formation.""

[dan_c]

"Using Keck Observatory in Hawaii, astronomers have detected two new protoclusters of galaxies embedded in primordial superclusters.

... Astronomers are especially interested in finding protoclusters of galaxies, the progenitors of clusters. Such objects, found at high redshifts, could provide essential information about the universe at its early stages. "

See the link for full article: https://phys.org/news/2019-12-astronomer...sters.html

The initial data came from a CFHT survey.

[TomK]

AMOS is now working on Mauna Kea - it tracks meteors.

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/201...ing-stars/

You think the Trib might have used a picture from Mauna Kea. Instead, they claimed their picture comes from the top of the SMA array on Mauna Kea but picture they used is definitely not from Mauna Kea and more likely from Haleakala on Maui. You would think that was a relatively easy thing for the Trib to check.

[dan d]

https://www.livescience.com/amp/milky-wa...stars.html

Pretty cool. Binaries star sets being thrown out by the black hole in our center
Aloha


HPP

[TomK]

The videos are fun to watch (note they come with the sound muted for me). The observational data used came from the Kecks on Mauna Kea.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Early in the formation of the universe, an extremely large galaxy produced stars quickly, then stopped. Was this the first example of Neil Young’s observation “it’s better to burn out than to fade away?” Discovered by astronomers with the Keck Multi-Object Spectrograph on Mauna Kea. initial results are intriguing, and researchers have scheduled additional time on Keck for follow up studies.

"Even before the universe was 2 billion years old, XMM-2599 had already formed a mass of more than 300 billion suns, making it an ultramassive galaxy," ... "More remarkably, we show that XMM-2599 formed most of its stars in a huge frenzy when the universe was less than 1 billion years old, and then became inactive by the time the universe was only 1.8 billion years old."

The team used spectroscopic observations from the W. M. Keck Observatory's powerful Multi-Object Spectrograph for Infrared Exploration, or MOSFIRE, to make detailed measurements of XMM-2599 and precisely quantify its distance.
https://phys.org/news/2020-02-astronomer...early.html

[TomK]

"Live fast, die young". One of the universal laws confirmed by the Kecks.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Telescopes on Mauna Kea* will take part in the next stage of New Horizons continuing mission. The spacecraft is now beyond Pluto in the Kuiper Belt. From Big Island to the edge of the solar system:

Today we planned for a slew of upcoming telescope time proposals on some of the world’s biggest ‘scopes to search for new KBO targets for @NewHorizons2015 to study and possibly even flyby!

https://twitter.com/alanstern/status/122...9330941956
* the photo shows Keck Observatory