Announcements

2 January 2015: For release at 11:00am PST on Monday, January 5, 2015 A compelling new image from Gemini Observatory peers into the heart of a group of galaxies (VV166) traveling through space together. The variety of galactic forms range from a perfect spiral, to featureless blobs and present, at a glance, a sampling of the diversity and evolution of galaxies. Galaxy groups are the most evident structures in the nearby universe. They are important laboratories for studying how galaxies form and evolve beyond our own Local Group of galaxies, which includes the Milky Way and the Great Spiral in Andromeda. Exploring the nature of these extragalactic “herds” may help to unlock the secrets to the overall structure of the universe. Herd Dynamics Unlike animal herds, which are generally the same species traveling together, most galaxies move through space in associations comprised of myriad types, shapes, and sizes. Galaxy groups differ in their …

17 November 2014: New Gemini Observatory images show an Earth-based perspective of the comet targeted by the Rosetta spacecraft. The images capture the comet about nine hours before the Philae probe landed on the “dirty snowball’s” surface. A series of images released today by the Gemini Observatory reveal Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P, the comet currently being explored by the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft) as it glides against a starry background. The images were obtained over a 26-minute period -- and only nine hours prior to the successful landing of the washing-machine sized probe, called Philae, which bounced to a safe landing on the comet’s surface. Images, like these from Gemini, and other telescopes, allow the Rosetta team to monitor the total activity level of the comet. In addition, they provide scientists with the data needed to study how the large-scale coma (the comet’s atmosphere) and its tails develop. Meanwhile, Rosetta's instruments concentrate on …

13 November 2014: The prize, for the unexpected discovery that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, rather than slowing as had been long assumed, is a shared honor with Saul Perlmutter, Brian Schmidt, and Adam Riess leading a collaboration of 51 total prize recipients splitting $3 million. Significant work on this project was done at the CTIO Blanco 4-meter telescope by current NOAO staff members Chris Smith and Tom Matheson, and former NOAO employees Bob Schommer, Nick Suntzeff, Mark Phillips, and Alejandro Clochiatti along with various other current and former AURA employees.

5 November 2014: For Scientists: The paper is accepted for publication in the The Astrophysical Journal and can be accessed at http://iopscience.iop.org/0004-637X/796/1/65/ (subscription required) or at astro-ph. Scientific Abstract(from the paper): We investigate the velocity versus position phase space of z ∼ 1 cluster galaxies using a set of 424 spectroscopic redshifts in nine clusters drawn from the GCLASS survey. Dividing the galaxy population into three categories: quiescent, star-forming, and poststarburst, we find that these populations have distinct distributions in phase space. Most striking are the poststarburst galaxies, which are commonly found at small clustercentric radii with high clustercentric velocities, and appear to trace a coherent “ring” in phase space. Using several zoom simulations of clusters we show that the coherent distribution of the poststarbursts can be reasonably well-reproduced using a simple quenching scenario. Specifically, the phase space is best reproduced if these galaxies are quenched with a rapid timescale (0.1 < τQ …

21 October 2014: For Scientists: The paper is accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letters and can be accessed at arXiv.org. Scientific Abstract (from the paper): We report the discovery of the first millisecond pulsar with a pulsating white dwarf companion. Following the recent discoveries of pulsations in extremely low-mass (ELM, <0. 3 M⊙ ) white dwarfs (WDs), we targeted ELM WD companions to two millisecond pulsars with high-speed Gemini photometry. We find significant optical variability in PSR J1738+0333 with periods between roughly 1790− 3060 s, consistent in timescale with theoretical and empirical observations of pulsations in ≈ 0.17 M⊙ He-core ELM WDs. We additionally put stringent limits on a lack of variability in PSR J1909− 3744, showing this ELM WD is not variable to < 0.1 per cent amplitude. Thanks to the accurate distance and radius estimates from radio timing measurements, PSR J1738+0333 becomes a benchmark …

2 October 2014: On Saturday evening, July 19th, Gemini Observatory, in a partnership with the ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center shared with Hawai'i residents "The Adventures of gAstronomy!" Dr. Steve Howell, Project Scientist for NASA's Kepler Planet Finding Mission, and Chef Bill Yosses, former White House Executive Pastry Chef, wowed the audience with their speculation about the conditions on selected exoplanets -- which inspire recipes for chefs like Yosses. Numerous samples of exoplanet-inspired culinary delights, from mango spheres, to exotic foams, and polymers, titillated audience's taste buds throughout the evening. “The excitement of discovering thousands of exoplanets can be brought right into your kitchen,” said Howell, who added that, “The same science principles astronomers use to understand alien worlds are used to create marvels of culinary delight.” Together, Howell and Yosses have combined modern molecular gastronomy methods, and basic physics, to teach a little of both, and provide exotic taste treats. “We believe the enthusiasm …

9 September 2014: In a recently published paper, NOAO astronomer Joan Najita was part of a team that has shown evidence for a planet forming in the disk around a young star. The results provide perhaps the first evidence that planets are surrounded by a circumplanetary disk at birth. This figure is an artist’s conception of the young massive star HD100546 and its surrounding disk. A planet forming in the disk has cleared the disk within 13AU of the star, a distance comparable to that of Saturn from the sun. As gas and dust flows from the circumstellar disk to the planet, this material surrounds the planet as a circumplanetary disk (inset). These rotating disks are believed to be the birthplaces of planetary moons, such as the Galilean moons that orbit Jupiter. While they are theoretically predicted to surround giant planets at birth, there has been little observational evidence to date for circumplanetary …

8 September 2014: The first data from the Gemini Frontier Fields are now available for astronomers. This dataset features wide-field adaptive optics images of a strong lensing galaxy cluster obtained with the GeMS adaptive optics system and GSAOI on the Gemini South telescope. Massive clusters of galaxies provide astronomers with a unique view of the very distant Universe behind them as well as revealing their galaxies themselves. The deep gravitational potential of clusters distorts and amplifies the background galaxies - an effect known as strong gravitational lensing. In this way, galaxies that are otherwise unobservable with existing telescopes, are acquirable. This circumstance allows astronomers to study these distant galaxies in great detail, shedding light on how the very young universe looked, and pushing the frontiers of our knowledge. In the course of the Frontier Fields campaign, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observed six galaxy clusters, selected for their strong lensing effects. Deep optical …

2 September 2014: The following is duplicated from the National Optical Astronomy Observatory press release, distributed on September 3, 2014. Imagine living on an exoplanet with two suns. One, you orbit and the other is a very bright, nearby neighbor looming large in your sky. With this “second sun” in the sky, nightfall might be a rare event, perhaps only coming seasonally to your planet. A new study suggests that this could be far more common than we realized. The NASA Kepler Space Telescope has confirmed about 1000 exoplanets, as well as thousands more stars considered “Kepler objects of interest”, dubbed KOIs – stars that could possibly host planets. Until now, there has been an unanswered question about exoplanet host stars; how many host stars are binaries? Binary stars have long been known to be commonplace – about half the stars in the sky are believed to consist of two stars orbiting each …

29 August 2014: The September 2014 NOAO Newsletter is online and ready to download. This issue includes information pertaining to the 2015A Call for Proposals, which are due September 25, 2014. On the Cover The cover shows an 8 × 9 arcminutes image of a portion of the Milky Way galactic bulge, obtained as part of the Blanco DECam Bulge Survey (BDBS) using the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) on the CTIO Blanco 4-m telescope. In this image, red, green, and blue (RGB) pixels correspond to DECam’s Y, z and i filters, respectively. The inset image shows the 2 × 3 array of monitors at the “observer2” workstation in the Blanco control room. The six chips shown here represent only 10% of the camera’s field of view.

16 June 2014: Einstein's Theory of General Relativity predicts that accelerated masses emit gravitational waves, or ripples in space-time. Even though gravitational waves have yet to be detected directly, we expect that there are more than hundred million gravitational wave sources in our own galaxy. However, as of today, we know of only a few such sources. A team of researchers, led by Dr. Mukremin Kilic of the University of Oklahoma and Dr. Warren Brown of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, have recently identified one of the best (and perhaps the most powerful) gravitational wave sources currently known using the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) on the Gemini North telescope and the Blue Channel spectrograph on the 6.5-meter MMT Telescope. Known as WD 0931+444, the object was first identified in 1982, and classified as a white dwarf with a low-mass M-dwarf stellar companion. This new data from Gemini and MMT reveal that the white dwarf …

10 June 2014: Observations using the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph on Gemini South reveal that galaxy-wide high-velocity outflows are extremely common among galaxies that host luminous quasars. These outflows may represent a crucial stage in a galaxy’s evolution when the supermassive black hole at its center begins injecting vast amounts of mass and energy into the galaxy. Supermassive black holes reside at the center of all massive galaxies and they grow through mass accretion, taking on material from their surroundings. During the most active periods they become luminous quasars. The most successful models of galaxy evolution predict that quasars play an integral role in the formation and evolution of massive galaxies by injecting mass and energy into their host galaxies. Without such feedback mechanisms, models are unable to accurately reproduce the properties of local massive galaxies such as the distributions of colors, star formation rates and stellar masses. A popular idea for a feedback …

15 May 2014: The following is duplicated from the Subaru press release, distributed on May 20, 2014. An international team of astronomers, led by Dr. Tae-Soo Pyo (Subaru Telescope, NAOJ), has revealed a complicated outflow structure in the binary UY Aur (Aurigae). The team observed the binary using the Gemini North's NIFS (Near-Infrared Integral Field Spectrometer) with the Altair adaptive optics system (Note 1). The team found that the primary star has a wide, open outflow, while the secondary star has a well-collimated jet. Because many stars form together as companions in binary or multiple systems, investigating these systems is essential for understanding star and planet formation. Although jets (i.e., narrow bright streams of gas) and outflows (i.e., less collimated flows of gas) from single young stars are ubiquitous, only a few observations have shown jets or outflows from multiple, low-mass young stars. Therefore, the current team chose to examine the outflow structure …

15 May 2014: The following text is duplicated from the Lawrence Livermore National Labratory (LLNL) press release, distributed on May 15, 2014. Also, see the Stanford University news release on this result. See the original Gemini press release for the Gemini Planet Imager's first light from January 7, 2014. Using one of the world's largest telescopes, a Lawrence Livermore team and international collaborators have tracked the orbit of a planet at least four times the size of Jupiter. The scientists were able to identify the orbit of the exoplanet, Beta Pictoris b, which sits 63 light years from our solar system, by using the Gemini Planet Imager's (GPI) next-generation, high-contrast adaptive optics (AO) system. This approach is sometimes referred to as extreme AO. The Gemini Planet Imager snapped an amazingly clear and bright image of the gas giant Beta Pictoris b after an exposure of just one minute. By using a series of …

6 May 2014: This new image of NGC 896, a region of energetic star formation in a cloud of gas and dust, represents one of the many beautiful images that Dr. Travis Rector has produced using NOAO telescope data over the years. Rector has now released a total of 150 images; more than 100 of these can be found in the NOAO image gallery. If all of Rector’s images were combined into a single image, it would contain more than five billion pixels – or 5 Gigapixels. Remarkably, this still covers only about 0.1% of the entire sky!

1 May 2014: Our solar system just got a little more crowded, thanks to discoveries from a huge digital camera designed to study dark energy. Last week astronomers reported the discovery of 2012 VP113 – nicknamed "Joe Biden" after the vice president, or VP, of the US. This potential dwarf planet was spotted on the outer fringes of the solar system, in a region called the inner Oort cloud. Days later, the same team reported two more potential dwarfs, known as 2013 FY27 and 2013 FZ27. Both of these objects are in the Kuiper belt, a grouping of relatively small bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune that is also home to Pluto and three other known dwarf planets. Astronomers suspect the Kuiper belt is littered with dwarfs, but many either reflect too little light or are too distant to have been visible in previous sky surveys. Dark eye The fresh haul of discoveries …

1 April 2014: The Cerro Tololo Ohio State Multi Object Spectrograph (COSMOS) arrived at CTIO on 2014-03-14. COSMOS was re-assembled in the Blanco Coude room by a team led by J. Elias (NOAO-N), S. Points (NOAO-S) and Mark Derwent (OSU). The COSMOS team re-installed the collimator and camera optics, slit masks, dispersers, and blocking filters. They found that the delivered image quality of COSMOS, using a pinhole mask, is the same as that which was measured in the Tucson lab prior to shipment. The photo above shows COSMOS fully assembled in the Blanco telescope coude lab. Considerable credit is due to the CTIO TelOps, ETS, and CISS staff for their support and help. More information about COSMOS can be found at http://www.noao.edu/nstc/kosmos We look forward to a successful first run on the Blanco telescope in April.

26 February 2014: The March 2014 NOAO Newsletter is online and ready to download. This issue includes information pertaining to the 2014B Call for Proposals, which are due March 31, 2014. On the Cover NOAO is embarking on a path to better serve the community in the use and analysis of big data. The cover image is the beginning panel of "Tales of the Modern Astronomer: ANTARES Rising," which tells the story of one young researcher in the near future benefiting from such development to exploit "open access to data and real-time astronomy tools" in the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) Era (read the full story about ANTARES in the Science Highlights section of this Newsletter). Development is starting now to establish this expertise at NOAO on behalf of the community.

20 February 2014: Though there are now many hundreds of confirmed exoplanets known, the number of exoplanet host stars that also have stellar companions is not well known. It is important to understand such binarity (or multiplicity) because this can have a profound effect on the way in which planets form and interact with one another. It is particularly important to examine the binarity of host stars that harbor a giant planet in a highly eccentric orbit since these are more likely to have had a dramatic dynamical history where the other star may have disrupted the orbit. New research by Stephen Kane (San Francisco State University) and collaborators shows that planets on highly eccentric (very non-circular) orbits are not necessarily explained by the presence of an additional star still present in the system. The observations that lead to this conclusion used the Differential Speckle Survey Instrument (DSSI) on the Gemini North telescope …

18 February 2014: On December 27, 2013 technicians at Gemini North identified that one of the top shutter’s drive units had a critical failure with its spherical bearing system. The system, not designed for in-situ repairs, is a complex mechanism used to open and close the 22-ton shutter system via large chains, and is located within the Gemini dome shutter. To perform repairs it requires an involved process of stabilizing the shutter, releasing the drive chains, and removing the 2-ton+ drive unit. Even under ideal conditions this work would require multiple weeks of effort. Due to this premature failure of the drive’s bearing system (which keeps the drive sprockets aligned to the drive chain) it was determined that in order to protect the shutter and telescope from potential risk, a shutdown was necessary. The shutdown was turned into a high-priority project and resources were made available to repair the drive unit -- located …