Discoveries using the telescopes on Mauna Kea

[TomK]

At the very least, I think the TMT protesters should be shown the last couple of minutes of that show and then re-justify what they are protesting.

[dan d]

https://amp.businessinsider.com/astronom...ter-2019-4

Galaxies found with little to no dark matter. Keck
Kinda weak article
Aloha


HPP

[randomq]

Perhaps galaxies full of type III civilizations, that have used all their antimatter and many of their stars for energy already. TomK let us know if you observe any wormholes opening up in our galaxy, they might come to visit...

[TomK]

Will do, but oddly enough, a very recent study indicates that traveling through a wormhole is slower than taking the direct route...

https://phys.org/news/2019-04-wormholes.html

[TomK]

Just a little more on the recent black hole result for those interested in the process and science:

Katie Bouman explains how the data are processed (a long time before the result was known):

https://youtu.be/BIvezCVcsYs

and ESO explains more about how the image was taken (includes MK):

https://youtu.be/omz77qrDjsU

For those with time, one of the announcements of the result (there were several simultaneous announcements around the world):

https://youtu.be/Dr20f19czeE

[TomK]

"First movie of the Aurora at Jupiter's north pole"

Infrared data from the IRCS instrument on the Subaru Telescope on MK was used to create the first movie of the aurora at Jupiter's north pole. The display is caused by the interaction of Jupiter's magnetic field and upper atmosphere with the solar wind.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/downloadSupplement?doi=10.1029%2F2018GL079411&file=grl58196-sup-0002-2018GL079411-ms01.mp4

More details here:

https://eos.org/research-spotlights/jupi...ldly-movie

[TomK]

Another merger event?

Some might remember the recent LIGO discovery of gravitational waves. In the last couple of nights, including tonight, telescopes around the world are looking to find a new source of gravitational waves, including UKIRT. The exact position of the merger event (i.e., two massive objects merging together and creating an explosion of gravitational waves) is unknown, but hopefully MK observatories will find it and help understand what happened.

This was the initial alert:

https://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/gcn3/24168.gcn3

I'll post an update once I know more.

[TomK]

"Plasma Jets Observed Ejecting From Rapidly Spinning Black Hole"

Another black hole discovery, this time the observations were of a relatively nearby black hole orbiting a star. The black hole is pulling matter off the star and creating powerful jets of plasma as the material is pulled towards the black hole's event horizon. However, the rotation of the black hole appears to be wobbling and so the jets keep being sent off in different directions.

The observations used a number of radio telescopes around the world just like the EHT although in this case it's a different collaboration of scientists and observatories. However, like the EHT, both the JCMT and the SMA on Mauna Kea were involved.

http://www.bigislandvideonews.com/2019/0...iscovered/

"“The incredible changes in brightness we saw in this JCMT and SMA data, and the model we designed to explain these changes, provided key information needed to develop our imaging method for this paper” Tetarenko said. “Typically, radio telescopes produce a single image from several hours of observation. But these jets were changing so fast that in a four-hour image we just saw a blur. It was like trying to take a picture of a waterfall with a one-second long exposure.”"

[PaulW]

Thanks as always Tom, very interesting what our telescopes are doing.

[TomK]

I'm unsure how well these links will work as I'm not on FB, but there was a short party earlier today at the EAO office, home to the JCMT and UKIRT, celebrating the incredible Powehi result. This is one of the most important results in astronomical history and among the major contributors were people living on this island; many of whom grew up here.

https://www.facebook.com/EAObservatory/photos/pb.1522416961352510.-2207520000.1556868978./2249156942011838/?type=3&theater

https://www.facebook.com/EAObservatory/photos/pb.1522416961352510.-2207520000.1556868978./2249156898678509/?type=3&theater

Congratulations to all that contributed to such a stunning piece of scientific history.