01-31-2017, 05:15 PM
Another couple of science discoveries recently announced that come from the observatories on Mauna Kea:
"Tracing the cosmic web with star-forming galaxies in the distant universe"
https://phys.org/news/2017-01-cosmic-web...stant.html
When you observe the universe and see objects several billions of light years away, you can actually see a "web". There are regions that are "voids", they have relatively little matter in them and then what looks to be an interconnected "web" of galactic clusters. It's an area of cosmology which is not yet fully understood but several teams are using the telescopes on Mauna Kea to try and figure out exactly what's going on (or, more accurately, what went on).
A little closer to home:
"Keck Observatory planet imager delivers first science"
https://phys.org/news/2017-01-keck-obser...ience.html
I think this is really neat. Coronagraphs have been used for decades, both to block the sun when trying to observe apparently nearby stars to test general relativity, to much smaller devices to block starlight to help detect exoplanets. This instrument actually uses the physics of light itself to block light from a star and detect exoplanets much closer to other stars than before.
"Tracing the cosmic web with star-forming galaxies in the distant universe"
https://phys.org/news/2017-01-cosmic-web...stant.html
When you observe the universe and see objects several billions of light years away, you can actually see a "web". There are regions that are "voids", they have relatively little matter in them and then what looks to be an interconnected "web" of galactic clusters. It's an area of cosmology which is not yet fully understood but several teams are using the telescopes on Mauna Kea to try and figure out exactly what's going on (or, more accurately, what went on).
A little closer to home:
"Keck Observatory planet imager delivers first science"
https://phys.org/news/2017-01-keck-obser...ience.html
I think this is really neat. Coronagraphs have been used for decades, both to block the sun when trying to observe apparently nearby stars to test general relativity, to much smaller devices to block starlight to help detect exoplanets. This instrument actually uses the physics of light itself to block light from a star and detect exoplanets much closer to other stars than before.