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The two most distant stars in our own Galaxy, by a long way (no pun intended), have been identified using data from UKIRT atop Mauna Kea. Although our Galaxy is roughly 100,000 light years in diameter there is also a halo of stars surrounding it which orbit the nucleus and therefore are part of the Milky Way galaxy. Those stars are likely out that far due to interactions and collisions between our Galaxy and others over billions of years. The distances are pretty staggering, nearly 800,000 and 900,000 light years away, a third of the way to the Andromeda galaxy. Results from UKIRT on the Big Island combined with those from the Sloan Survey, and confirmed with spectroscopy from the MMT on the mainland gave rise to the new discovery.
It's nice to see these discoveries make the news. UKIRT has been in survey mode for a few years now and this is exactly the sort of thing that was hoped for when the survey started - new surprising discoveries about our universe.
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy...070920142/
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Impressive! Our Big Island astronomy establishment should be a point of pride for all of us. Thanks for sharing.
ditto ...
I love this stuff man.
aloha,
pog
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Great stuff.
"UKIRT has been in survey mode for a few years now"
What does that mean? It's scanning the sky piece by piece?
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As I would have said had I heard this news in 1969:
"Far out!"
"I'm at that stage in life where I stay out of discussions. Even if you say 1+1=5, you're right - have fun." - Keanu Reeves
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quote:
Originally posted by HereOnThePrimalEdge
As I would have said had I heard this news in 1969:
"Far out!"
LMAO!
Fantastic, Mr. Tom....Mahalo. Waiting for the clouds to clear to watch the supermoon, with mo'opuna reading your link as we wait.
Thank you so much.
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HOTPE - good one!
Paul - yes, that's pretty much what UKIRT has been doing. In fact there have been several surveys, some that cover a broad part of the sky such as the Galactic plane so don't go too deep as that's a very large area to cover to scanning just one small part of the sky over and over again to go as deep and as far as possible. That last survey has been my favourite one, it's called the Ultra-Deep Survey (UDS) and has produced some stunning results. This hasn't been updated in a while but it's fun to play around and zoom in:
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/astronomy/UD...llery.html
The BzK image combines data from both UKIRT at infrared wavelengths and Subaru at optical wavelengths. The really red objects are the ones only detected by UKIRT as their light is shifted into the infrared by the expansion of the universe, so those objects are incredibly far away, billions of light years and some formed not long after the Big Bang.
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quote:
Originally posted by Chunkster
Impressive! Our Big Island astronomy establishment should be a point of pride for all of us. Thanks for sharing.
It needs to be more than that, a point of pride. Right now, the observatories have to import almost their entire workforce from other mainlands. There are multiple implications and complications from this. There are going to be hundreds of local jobs becoming available in about 5 years. The question is do you think home schooling your keiki with a heavy dose of anti-GMO, anti-geothermal, anti-observatories, and anti-science is going to qualify them for these jobs? The director of Keck has said only 20% of his staff is astronomers, 80% are electrical and mechanical engineers, electronics and mechanical techs, with either experience or training for highly specialized instrumentation. Due to the educational systems around here, there is very little emphasis in these applied technology areas with a huge amount of emphasis on computer science, psychology, pharmacy, agriculture, cultural studies, undergraduate astronomy.
Looking around, the entire education system on this island is not realistic of the work force needed ahead. If it stays SNAFU, then it will continue with employers bringing their skilled workforce in shifts on travel duty.
"This island Hawaii on this island Earth"
*Japanese tourist on bus through Pahoa, "Is this still America?*
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Each observatory is different. I took a look at the employment demographics at the Joint Astronomy Centre (JAC, who run UKIRT and the JCMT) a couple of years ago and roughly 50% of the employees could be classed as locals (people who lived here before they were hired by the JAC). That definition of "locals" is, of course, a bit weak, but I estimated 90% of them were true locals as most people would define the term, i.e., they grew up here.
Most of those positions were/are admin, HR, technician and telescope operator jobs. Very few are in positions that require engineering/computing degrees or PhDs (astronomers). This is not because the observatories won't hire locals into those positions, in fact they would love to as it would reduce visa and relocation costs. It's because none apply for them in the first place and I have been involved in several recruitment exercises, so do know who applies for these positions . Pahoated is correct, the field of potential local employees for those jobs here is extremely limited, almost to the point of being non existent. I would love to see this change.
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