Discoveries using the telescopes on Mauna Kea

[TomK]

HOTPE - this might interest you given your post above.

"Scientists investigate debris disk in a nearby planetary system"

This involved the JCMT on MK and again is about a debris disk around a star, this time one very similar to our sun.

"The new study reveals that the debris disk is larger than previously thought. Marino's team found that it extends from 30 to at least 150 AU. Combined ALMA and SCUBA2/JMCT observations also show that at 0.86 mm the total disc emission is about 3.7 mJy and the disk has a surface density distribution of millimeter sized grains with a power law slope of approximately 0.1.

Moreover, the researchers assume that a yet unseen fourth planet may lurk somewhere in the system between 61 Vir d at 0.5 AU and the inner edge of the disc. They argue that if the disc was stirred at 150 AU by an additional planet, that unseen alien world should have a mass of at least 10 Earth masses and should orbit its host at a distance between 10 and 20 AU."

https://phys.org/news/2017-05-scientists...etary.html

ETA: The link. Sorry about that. It's been a very long day (and night).

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Thanks Tom.
I appreciate the info and link. Given how recently we first discovered an exo-planet, it's incredible how many we know about now and how different they are from one another. Since they're at many variable stages in their formation, I suppose that shouldn't be too surprising.

With the large debris area and a potential planet with a mass 10 times earth's, it's fascinating to imagine the amount of asteroid, comet, and small particle impact that may be occurring in that orbital field. Quite a show if there is a planet, and that planet has an atmosphere. A meteor storm every night, and day:

the system's debris disk, which could hold many clues to the nature of planetary formation beyond our solar system.
...
due to common favourable forming conditions for rocky planets close in and planetesimals at large radii.

If I know what I shall find, I do not want to find it. Uncertainty is the salt of life. - biochemist Erwin Chargaff

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Driving home from Hilo recently I heard on the HPR program Stargazer, a discussion about Project PANOPTES:

Panoptic Astronomical Networked Observatories for a Public Transiting Exoplanets Survey

It's a relatively low cost, remotely operated, robotic telescope. The idea is to get students and amateur astronomers involved in the discovery of exoplanets. When a potential exoplanetary system is discovered, the location can be forwarded to astronomers at a larger telescope for further investigation.
http://www.projectpanoptes.org/

The prototype PAN001 unit was recently deployed on Mauna Loa. This would greatly benefit our local high school students should they gain access to one of these units for their science classes or after school astronomy clubs:
http://www.projectpanoptes.org/pdfs/pano...pril17.pdf

If I know what I shall find, I do not want to find it. Uncertainty is the salt of life. - biochemist Erwin Chargaff

[TomK]

Thanks, HOTPE. Similar projects have been going on elsewhere in the world and have proved very successful, so hope that's the same here. In the meantime:

"Discovery in the early universe poses black hole growth puzzle"

This involves the Keck Observatory on MK. Quasars are active galaxies, meaning that matter is falling into the central supermassive black holes which results in extremely energetic outflows which brighten the galaxy considerably and make them easily visible to telescopes even though they are very distant. However, the mass of the black holes (typically the mass of a billion suns!) can only be easily explained by matter falling into them over at least 100 million years, but a few seem to have reached their size and mass in only 100,000 years.

https://phys.org/news/2017-05-discovery-...black.html

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Mauna Kea Discoverer

Sandra Faber Receives Gruber Cosmology Prize for Career Achievements
(only the 3rd woman in history to receive the award)

Sandra Faber was instrumental in getting the Keck telescope built on Maun Kea:

• In 1985 Faber emerged as the leading science advocate for the construction of the 10-meter Keck telescope in Hawaii (the most powerful on the planet when it went online in 1993) and, with Harland Epps, developed the optical design. She later served as the co-chair of the Keck Science Steering Committee and went on to lead construction of the DEIMOS spectrograph on Keck, one of the largest and most innovative astronomical instruments in the world.

She also made discoveries about the nature of dark matter, collaborated on the Hubble Space Telescope, SETI, and much more:
https://sciencesprings.wordpress.com/201...ndy-faber/

It... lends weight to Goethe's felicitous description of architecture as 'frozen music.' ... Does this, I often wonder, make music 'defrosted architecture?' Listening to Bach's Goldberg variations as I often do on walks when motorway noise and other auditory intrusions preclude the music of silence, it strikes me that it might. - Pub Walks in Underhill Country, Nat Segnit

[Eric1600]

While not an actual discovery perhaps yet, this is an interesting experiment.

A UCLA-led team has discovered a new way of probing the hypothetical fifth force of nature using two decades of observations at W. M. Keck Observatory, the world’s most scientifically productive ground-based telescope.

There are four known forces in the universe: electromagnetic force, strong nuclear force, weak nuclear force, and gravitational force. Physicists know how to make the first three work together, but gravity is the odd one out. For decades, there have been theories that a fifth force ties gravity to the others, but no one has been able to prove it thus far.

“This is really exciting. It’s taken us 20 years to get here, but now our work on studying stars at the center of our galaxy is opening up a new method of looking at how gravity works,” said Andrea Ghez, Director of the UCLA Galactic Center Group and co-author of the study.

... more info at http://www.keckobservatory.org/recent/en...ifth_force

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Jupiter now has a total of 69 moons. Observations were made at observatories in Chile as well as the Subaru Telescope on Mauna Kea during the past year. The moons are small, only one or two km (about 0.6 to 1.3 miles) across. S/2016 J 1 takes roughly 1.65 years to orbit Jupiter, while S/2017 J 1 takes about 2.01 years to do the same.

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy...r-jupiter/

[Guest]

HOTPE, What an Awesome discovery and news.
Now how will any of those many new found Jupiter moons help our growing Homeless population here in Hawaii? I find it disturbing that these many Jupiter moons earn names and extra funding while our Homeless and Hawaiians remain ignored.

Will our Hawaiian and local folks have a few more job opportunities due to these incredible observatory observations?
Are these Jupiter moon discoveries so great that the 8 criteria to build on Mauna Kea no longer need to be followed?

It's Strange to me how back here on planet earth and even here in Hawaii we have real issues that need funding and attention. Yet, we are spending so much time and money to find and name the many Jupiter moons instead. I bet more has been spent finding and naming those Jupiter moons than on our growing Homeless problem or protecting Mauna Kea and the Hawaiian people. jmo

Some Folks don't want to recognize the Hawaiian people today.

http://www.bigislandvideonews.com/2017/0...ing-funds/

[leilanidude]

our Homeless and Hawaiians remain ignored.

Ask OHA and DHHL what they are doing with the 100's of millions in funding they have.
--

Will our Hawaiian and local folks have a few more job opportunities due to these incredible observatory observations?

They would already have lots of jobs if the construction was allowed to start.
------

I bet more has been spent finding and naming those Jupiter moons than on our growing Homeless problem or protecting Mauna Kea and the Hawaiian people.

Again, ask OHA and DHHL what they have done with their seemingly unlimited funding over the years.

[PaulW]

Gypsy the hijack king. Are you still moving?