Discoveries using the telescopes on Mauna Kea

[TomK]

I'm slowly getting over jetlag, it seems I've reached that age where it's a little harder to overcome than in my younger days!

Anyway, a couple of recent discoveries from MK announced while I was away:

"Astronomers Prove What Separates True Stars from Wannabes"

http://www.keckobservatory.org/recent/en...m_wannabes

I'm truly disappointed the Keck used the word "prove" in the title, as proof is for mathematicians and courts, and not for science. You can never prove anything in science unless it's a mathematical (theoretical) proof and this isn't, so it's the wrong word to use. Nevertheless, the research concentrated on showing what makes a star and what makes a "failed star", or a brown dwarf. It's all about mass.

Secondly;

"A Partly-cloudy Exoplanet"

http://gemini.edu/node/12673

"The first exoplanet discovered using the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) is a young, cool object between 2–10 Jupiter masses. Identified as 51 Eridani b, new research indicates that its color is redder than similar brown dwarfs and might be due to clouds in its atmosphere. The research also hints that the formation of this exoplanet is likely due to the collapse of icy disk materials followed by the accretion of a thick gas atmosphere – much like the process astronomers think probably formed the gas giants in our Solar System."

[TomK]

How to make an exoplanet

This recipe comes to you from the Keck, UH and elsewhere. The ingredients can be found in your local galaxy.

https://3c1703fe8d.site.internapcdn.net/...826b9a.jpg

"With Keck's new data, the researchers were able to measure the sizes of the 2,000 planets with 4 times more precision than what had been achieved previously. When they examined the distribution of planet sizes, they found a surprise: a striking gap between the groups of rocky Earths and mini-Neptunes. Though a few planets fall into the gap, the majority do not."

https://phys.org/news/2017-06-family-tre...anets.html

[Eric1600]

For those of you inspired to make some planets at home: http://www.waitwow.com/make-scientifical...e-planets/

[TomK]

Professor Jerry Nelson

Sadly, Prof. Jerry Nelson has passed away. He was extremely well-respected in the astronomy community and helped develop many young scientists and engineers' careers both on the mainland and here in Hawaii. He was the person who developed the segmented mirror design which has made the Keck telescopes so successful and will be used by the TMT and the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope. Jerry will be missed by many.

https://phys.org/news/2017-06-jerry-nels...anced.html

[TomK]

How asteroids break apart

http://gemini.edu/node/12678

This study was performed using the Gemini North Telescope on Mauna Kea. It's interesting as it demonstrates what might happen if we ever use the wrong technique to deal with an asteroid that is on a collision course with the Earth. If you have a dense and solid asteroid heading your way, simply trying to blow it up may result in more asteroids heading your way. This is why time is now spent trying to determine what asteroids are made of and how solid they are, e.g., are they solid lumps of dense rock, or a conglomeration of rubble (work that UKIRT is actively involved in).

The three ways an asteroid might fragment were studied: a break up due to the rotation of the asteroid, an impact that cratered the asteroid which resulted in debris, or a break up of the asteroid caused by a collision with another asteroid. The authors believe the latter is the most likely explanation in this case.

[TomK]

Subaru and Gemini help prepare Juno for its Great Red Spot flyby

https://astronomynow.com/2017/06/30/eart...uno-flyby/

"Observations with Earth’s most powerful telescopes enhance the spacecraft’s planned observations by providing three types of additional context,” said Juno science team member Glenn Orton of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. “We get spatial context from seeing the whole planet. We extend and fill in our temporal context from seeing features over a span of time. And we supplement with wavelengths not available from Juno. The combination of Earth-based and spacecraft observations is a powerful one-two punch in exploring Jupiter."

The Juno mission is about to end soon with the probe being destroyed when it makes a controlled entry into Jupiter's atmosphere, but as part of the "de-orbiting" process it is making some very close flybys of Jupiter and on July 10th will fly over the famous Red Spot at an altitude less than 6000 miles above the storm.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

TomK,
Here's a short video of Jupiter made from the observations at Gemini North & Suburu, which you mentioned in your post:

https://mobile.twitter.com/i/web/status/...8581206016

Perfect citizens: Those who do not like cake, but have a passion for producing eggs, butter, sugar & milk.

[TomK]

Thanks, HOTPE. Astronomy.com has a more detailed article which includes the video and also adds the following which the combined Juno and MK observations might help answer:

"Among the Red Spot’s many mysteries are its shrinking behavior — since Voyager 1 and 2 measured the storm at 14,500 miles (23,300km) across in 1979, it’s lost several thousand miles in width. Other mysteries associated with the storm include the exact mechanism that produces its red color, which has varied over the years from red to brown."

http://www.astronomy.com/news/2017/07/gr...ot-closeup

The different colored bands we see in Jupiter's atmosphere have been explained as seeing various depths within the atmosphere, but there are still outstanding questions about this. Given the odd color of the Great Red Spot, these observations may well help give us a better explanation of what's going on. The storm may well have lasted for a few hundred years so it'd be nice to really understand it after all these years!

Edited to fix a typo.

[mermaid53]

Mahalo HOTPE and TomK for posting these links. Exciting time for Jupiter.

[TomK]

Thanks, Mermaid. If you're interested you can follow the Juno mission here:

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/juno/main/index.html

The Great Red Spot has been a mystery for centuries. I'm hoping, though, it won't be for too much longer!