Discoveries using the telescopes on Mauna Kea

[TomK]

"Great stuff, but actually New Horizons already passed by Ultima Thule a week ago. Still waiting for the pictures to get back here."

Just be clear, high-resolution images of Ultima Thule have already been sent back:

https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/new-ho...ima-thule/

There's a call to rename the object as "Snowman" which I'll support. There will be more images to come. As HOTPE notes, the existence of the formerly theoretical Kuiper Belt was confirmed by the astronomers using Mauna Kea telescopes. It's wonderful that we get a close-up on an object in that region. Others, such as myself, will argue we got the first close-up of a Kuiper Belt object when New Horizons passed by Pluto. In any case, this is a great example of how ground-based observations on Mauna Kea get supported by space-based missions. If built here, the TMT will be doing the same with various space telescopes and probes in the future.

[Guest]

Snow aliens upon being discovered.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=f_B23QGCEmA

[TomK]

"Cosmic Telescope Zooms in on the Beginning of Time "

Too tired to provide a detailed narrative, but basically the Gemini Telescope on Mauna Kea detected light from an extremely distant galaxy via another galaxy that happened to be in the way. Not only did this fortunate alignment allow astronomers using MK telescopes to observe this distant and very ancient galaxy, but the light was also magnified enough to look at atomic lines and at the same time show Einstein's theory of general relativity is actually quite real.

https://www.gemini.edu/node/21148

"The Gemini observations provided key pieces of the puzzle by filling a critical hole in the data. The Gemini North telescope on Maunakea, Hawai‘i, utilized the Gemini Near-InfraRed Spectrograph (GNIRS) to dissect a significant swath of the infrared part of the light’s spectrum. The Gemini data contained the tell-tale signature of magnesium which is critical for determining how far back in time we are looking. The Gemini observations also led to a determination of the mass of the black hole powering the quasar. “When we combined the Gemini data with observations from multiple observatories on Maunakea, the Hubble Space Telescope, and other observatories around the world, we were able to paint a complete picture of the quasar and the intervening galaxy,” said Feige Wang of the University of California, Santa Barbara, who is a member of the discovery team.

That picture reveals that the quasar is located extremely far back in time and space – shortly after what is known as the Epoch of Reionization — when the very first light emerged from the Big Bang. “This is one of the first sources to shine as the Universe emerged from the cosmic dark ages,” said Jinyi Yang of the University of Arizona, another member of the discovery team. “Prior to this, no stars, quasars, or galaxies had been formed, until objects like this appeared like candles in the dark.”"

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Two asteroids discovered in Hawaii have had Hawaiian names submitted for approval with the IAU. There could be more in the future, as students in Hawaii now have a way to become involved with naming objects discovered by the telescopes on Mauna Kea. It’s a good way young people on our island can work with astronomers and language experts, and encourage study and future careers in STEM fields. It’s also been beneficial for the scientific community, as some believe the Hawaiian names attract media attention better than the basic letters and numerals usually assigned to asteroids, comets, etc:

They chose Ka‘epaoka‘awela — meaning mischievous opposite-moving companion of Jupiter — for an asteroid near Jupiter that’s moving in the opposite direction, and Kamo‘oalewa — which alludes to an oscillating celestial object.
...
Beyond that, observatories are committing to give a Hawaiian name to any major discovery made from their Hawaii telescopes, including on Maunakea, Ka‘iu Kimura said.
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/201...ssion=true

“What the hell is going on with Global Waming? Please come back fast, we need you!” - President Donald J. Trump 1/28/19 (yes, he said Waming)

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

A telescope on Mauna Kea has documented a solar flare by a sun 1500 light years distant, 10 billion times more powerful than any ever produced by our sun:

The James Clerk Maxwell Telescope observed a powerful stellar flare... estimated to be 10 billion times more powerful than any solar flare from our sun.

“The average solar flares on our sun are pretty dramatic,” said astronomer Steve Mairs, lead investigator of the team that discovered the flare. “There are stories of telephone lines exploding because of flares in the past.
https://www.westhawaiitoday.com/2019/02/...lar-flare/

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

FarFarOut.
That’s the name of an unconfirmed object in our solar system, which may be the most distant hunk of rock orbiting our sun. I’m not sure whether orbiting objects can have designated Sister-Districts here on planet Earth, but FarFarOut & Puna would seem like a good match. Old hippie lingo both here and there, each of us dangling on the remote edge of a frontier far far away from the likes of civilized society.

Just months after discovering FarOut, the most distant known object in the Solar System, the same team of astronomers has detected the faint—but not yet confirmed—glimmerings of an object even farther away. Dubbed FarFarOut, the extreme dwarf planet is 13 billion miles away—a distance so far it takes nearly 20 hours for the Sun’s rays to reach it.*

... detected by this team with the Japanese Subaru 8-meter telescope located atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Other previously known distant objects include Eris at 96 AU and Pluto at 34 AU.
https://gizmodo.com/extreme-dwarf-planet...1832957325

* in comparison, it takes 8 minutes & 20 seconds for the sun’s rays to reach Earth

[TomK]

Thank you, HOTPE, appreciate the latest updates. I've been a bit remiss on MK astronomy updates recently but was in hospital for a while and am still getting my act together. However, I'll try and post some stuff from MK over the weekend if I can.

[dan d]

Once tmt is built we will be able to see within 500,000 yrs of the big bang, what new science will we reveal with that knowledge. And the stem kids will be doin the new science.

Also with the sma linked with the southern sma they say we will be able to view up to the edge of our very own super massive bkack hole in our very own milky way,
( not the bar) lol
Aloha


HPP

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Observatories around the world maintain contact with each other so asteroid sightings, particularly those which might pass near Earth can be confirmed, analyzed, and details about the object refined. Pan-STARRS on Maui is one telescope involved, as is NASA’s Infrared Telescope on Mauna Kea. Let’s hope if there’s ever a particularly large asteroid headed on a collision course with Earth, that a tree on Big Island doesn’t fall over:

Then, Pan-STARRS1 automatically detected the asteroid on September 25, 2017; had it not already been detected in 2012, this would have been the first time anyone had seen the asteroid, marking the start of the simulation. Followup observations allowed astronomers to determine its rotational period, its maximum size, and to which class of asteroids it belonged. Had the asteroid been a real threat, these details would allow researchers to model where on Earth the rock might hit and how much damage it would cause. They also performed a continually updating risk assessment based on the rock’s size and composition.

The exercise was largely a success, with a few exceptions. “There were definite successes but there were some things that went spectacularly wrong,” Alessondra “Sondy” Springmann, researcher in the doctoral program at the Lunar & Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona, told Gizmodo.

Springmann noted two main issues: a mountain-wide power outage from a fallen tree prevented the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (NASA IRTF) on Hawaii’s Mauna Kea from observing the asteroid...
https://gizmodo.com/astronomers-perform-...1832998125

[TomK]

Thanks, HOTPE. HELCO's unreliability has become a very big issue for the observatories over the last few years. I started a study a number of years ago which I then made available to the other observatories. Since then, things have taken off, literally. HELCO outages and "glitches" have increased exponentially in the last decade or so, something that effects everyone on the island as well as the observatories.

When the data were made available to the observatories a group was formed and contacted HELCO. Their excuse was that the increase in domestic solar usage was making their system unstable. There has been little progress since then.

It is a real concern for future operations and research at the summit, including the TMT. OMKM rules mean that there's little chance of using alternative forms of energy.