Discoveries using the telescopes on Mauna Kea

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

telescope on Mauna Loa last night to image the Tesla Roadstar
Thanks TomK!

That was brilliant marketing....
Definitively. I already saw a photo of a Tesla yesterday with a bumper sticker that said "My Other Car Is In Orbit."

Recycle Puna. Humans, although probably not you personally, have already left 400,000 pounds of trash on the moon. - YouTube's Half As Interesting

[TomK]

We (UKIRT) might have a go at trying to detect the Roadster in the next couple of nights. It's not a high priority as there's no real science to be gained and I'll need to do some math to figure out where it is so that our telescope control system understands, but if we do see it I'll share the images here. It'll be faint but hoping we'll be able to see it move with respect to background stars. They'll likely be the first infrared observations ever of a car in space...

[TomK]

HOTPE - you (and others) might find this interesting:

"'Oumuamua: 'space cigar's' tumble hints at violent past"

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43018706

I'm not sure they know its violent history happened early in its history, but statistically, that would be the most reasonable explanation.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

tumble hints at violent past"

Thanks TomK, it appears we now have yet another piece of the Oumuamua puzzle. Considering the short amount of time that's passed since its discovery we've already learned a great deal. The completion of the new LSST (telescope) with the ability to detect another estimated 10,000 interstellar objects in our solar system offers the potential for even greater understanding of our neighboring star systems in the near future.

We may not have to travel light years to reach fragments of distant stars.

Recycle Puna. Humans, although probably not you personally, have already left 400,000 pounds of trash on the moon. - YouTube's Half As Interesting

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

The Kepler Space Telescope has detected another 275 potential exoplanets. Astronomers on earth have verified 95 of them as newly discovered:
https://phys.org/news/2018-02-kepler-sci...anets.html

Some of these planets are then analyzed by an animation tool in Hawaii to look for habitable zones:
Müller, a professor of mathematics and computer science at the University of Groningen in Germany... and Haghighipour, a researcher at the Institute for Astronomy and the NASA Astrobiology Institute at the University of Hawaii-Manoa, have collaborated on scientific papers that made use of the HZ calculator.
https://www.space.com/39676-alien-planet...-tool.html

While space telescopes such as Kepler and James Webb will play an important part in future discoveries, they can't completely replace earth based telescopes. Space telescopes don't operate autonomously as some have suggested... in a unattended vacuum, so to speak. They will continue to require and rely on earth based observatories, especially large earth based observatories for review and verification of their raw data.

Recycle Puna. Humans, although probably not you personally, have already left 400,000 pounds of trash on the moon. - YouTube's Half As Interesting

[TomK]

"They will continue to require and rely on earth based observatories, especially large earth based observatories for review and verification of their raw data."

And vice versa.

[TomK]

This is a little different. The NASA Opportunity rover still remains operational on Mars and has found evidence of freeze-thaw on the planet that looks very similar to similar freeze-thaw effects on Mauna Kea.

http://spacecoastdaily.com/2018/02/nasas...bout-mars/

Although not fully discussed in the article, it was mentioned in a caption of freeze-thaw effects on Mauna Kea:

"This image shows stone stripes on the side of a volcanic cone on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. The stripes are made of small rock fragments and they are aligned downhill as freeze-thaw cycles have lifted them up and out of the finer-grained regolith, and moved them to the sides, forming stone stripes."

[TomK]

New round of future discoverers

The Maunakea Scholars program has announced the latest Hawaii high school students to get observing time at the observatories. Good for them, they are our future whether they or not they go into astronomy.

From http://bigislandnow.com/2018/02/19/astro...cope-time/

"Students in the Maunakea Scholars program spend months working alongside mentors from the University of Hawai‘i’s Institute for Astronomy, analyzing data and preparing professional-style research proposals in areas of their own personal interest. The student proposals which are deemed most creative, scientifically promising and technically viable are awarded telescope time to facilitate advanced research."

"On Feb. 14, 2017-18 winning proposals from King Kekaulike High School were announced.

Janine Harris – Cepheid Magnitude Periods
Ryan Siarot and Thorn Refugio – Observing Asteroid Colors to Determine Composition
Quinton Uradomo – Dark Matter
Kayla Wohlers and Caroline Stevenson – Deep Into The Storm
Quentin Beamer – White Dwarf Formation Temperatures

On Feb. 16, 2017-18 winning proposals from Kapolei High School were announced.

Tavita Vaitului – New Life
Elijah Kogler and Noah Kolona – Does the Orbit of Sagittarius A Affect the Surrounding Stars?"

[TomK]

Most distant supernova ever detected

One of the most intriguing astronomical discoveries in the last decade or so has been that the expansion of the universe appears to be accelerating. This was completely unexpected and is still not fully understood, with scientists invoking some form of "dark energy" that's behind this. This acceleration was discovered by observing distant supernovae, i.e., exploding stars, which act as "standard candles". In other words, supernovae are well understood and we know how bright they are, so they can be used to measure distances.

Recently, with the help of the Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea, the most distant supernova ever detected was discovered. This will help in understanding the early universe and provides us with more information on the expansion of the universe.

https://phys.org/news/2018-02-astronomer...rnova.html

"The exploding star, named DES16C2nm, was detected by the Dark Energy Survey (DES), an international collaboration to map several hundred million galaxies in order to find out more about dark energy – the mysterious force believed to be causing the accelerated expansion of the Universe.

As detailed in a new study published in the Astrophysical Journal, light from the event has taken 10.5 billion years to reach Earth, making it the oldest supernova ever discovered and studied. The Universe itself is thought to be 13.8 billion years old."

[PaulW]

Thanks for keeping us informed Tom, great work being done up there.