Discoveries using the telescopes on Mauna Kea

[TomK]

Not so much an astronomical discovery using the MK telescopes, but a discovery of a young local talent nurtured by the observatories.

"Hilo’s own Devin Chu helping discover the secrets of the universe as an astronomer"

"“As I continued to look more into these books, I saw these huge stars that are different from our sun, like how galaxies are different than our own galaxy,” he said, adding that made him think about the sheer vastness of the universe. “Getting the sense of scale, just how small we are in a sense, was pretty mind-boggling, but also to me meant that there’s so much more to learn. What we know and experience here on Earth is a tiny, miniscule of what is out there.”

Making his way through the Hilo school system, his curiosity about the universe and interest in astronomy was further buoyed by several science programs, including the annual weeklong Journey Through the Universe, that offered him the chance to hear local astronomers talk and present information about their work and even work alongside them."

https://bigislandnow.com/2024/02/17/hilo...stronomer/

[TomK]

Have you watched the movie called Star Trek, the one with red matter and the black hole at the end? Or any movie with black holes?

In real life, it's a bit different but every so often we get a glimpse of what black holes do to stars, not space ships.

"Star ripped apart by black hole in rare discovery"

"Astronomers from the University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy (IfA) have uncovered the closest recorded occurrence of a star being torn apart by a supermassive black hole (SMBH). Using the All-Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (ASAS-SN) system, on February 22, 2023,the team detected a sudden surge in brightness followed by a rapid dimming in the galaxy NGC 3799, located about 160 million light-years from Earth.

“While black holes destroying stars have been seen before, this is the first one we have seen this close using visible light,” said Willem Hoogendam, an IfA graduate student who co-led the research. “This could give us a much better understanding of how SMBHs grow and collect material around them.”

Follow-up observations were taken with IfA’s Asteroid Terrestrial Last Alert System (ATLAS) telescopes on Maunaloa and Haleakalā, W.M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, and other ground- and space-based observatories. Hoogendam, working with fellow IfA grad student Jason Hinkle and faculty advisor Ben Shappee, analyzed these data to determine that the burst of brightness was caused by a Tidal Disruption Event (TDE). TDEs happen when a star gets too close to a SMBH and is torn apart by its strong gravitational force, with the black hole devouring the star’s mass. Research findings will be published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

“This discovery suggests that black holes ripping stars apart nearby could be more common than previously thought—we just haven’t witnessed it happening frequently,” said Hoogendam."

https://www.hawaii.edu/news/2024/03/05/s...lack-hole/

[TomK]

Not a discovery, just a gorgeous image from the Gemini North on Mauna Kea.

https://noirlab.edu/public/media/archive...w2410a.jpg

From https://earthsky.org/todays-image/a-sky-...ini-north/

[dan_c]

Not a discovery, just a gorgeous image from the Gemini North on Mauna Kea.

https://noirlab.edu/public/media/archive...w2410a.jpg

From https://earthsky.org/todays-image/a-sky-...ini-north/

Thanks, that is gorgeous.

[TomK]

A distant burst of gamma rays from a galaxy may not be what it seemed at first. Back in late 2020 astronomers using the Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea reported detecting a powerful gamma-ray bust from from a very distant and young galaxy called GN-z11. However, recent data suggest it was nothing more than a glint of light from a large piece of space debris, the upper stage of a Russian Proton Rocket, that had become space junk.

"Around the time that the original team was studying the sky, a Russian proton rocket reached low Earth orbit and released its upper stages (dubbed Breeze-M), which then became space junk, orbiting the Earth. By looking at the orbit of the space debris and matching with the observations taken in the original study, the new team found the flash could be simply explained by the upper stage falling past the part of the sky the telescope was observing."

https://ca.movies.yahoo.com/movies/energ...51592.html
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-021-01472-3

I don't think we're at the stage of confirming either version right now, but if memory serves, I don't think any follow-up observations of the gamma-ray burst ever confirmed its existence. In any case, this is a good example of how science works - you need to test any observation and follow things up with corroborating evidence. It's also an example of how space junk is becoming an increasing problem.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

space junk is becoming an increasing problem.

There’s more and more space junk and satellite swarms, but there are also several robotic garbage pickers that should be launched and tested this year.  Net capture, big scoops, harpoons, hopefully one or more will have some measure of success.  
Most countries make some attempt to have rocket engines onboard that will guide 2nd stages toward reentry soon after launch.

[kalianna]

So they land in the ocean? Is this a good thing?

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

So they land in the ocean? Is this a good thing?

It’s a controlled reentry, so better than uncontrolled.  Smaller, less dense objects burn up in the atmosphere.
Satellites provide phone service, tv, gps, weather predictions, etc.  Most of us use some form of orbiting space technology in our daily lives, so space debris landing in the ocean is a consequence of our handheld devices, navigation systems, and finding out where that hurricane is going.

[TomK]

One of the benefits of ground-based telescopes such as those on Mauna Kea is that they don't produce space junk.

[TomK]

I'm travelling so just a quickie.

"Astronomers Unveil Strong Magnetic Fields Spiraling at the Edge of Milky Way’s Central Black Hole"



From https://eventhorizontelescope.org/blog/a...black-hole

The JCMT on Muna Kea was an essential part of these observations, especially given its unique ability to carry out polarization measurements at submm-wavelengths.