Press Releases

22 February 2010: In one of the nearest giant clusters of galaxies, Abell 3627, astronomers have reported finding a galaxy with two distinct tails of gas. Of particular significance, there are unambiguous signs of current star formation in this gas tail, providing the first evidence that star formation can actively take place in the cold intergalactic medium. These results challenge ideas based on the current computer simulations and modeling.

15 February 2010: The groundbreaking for the viewpoint Vista Sidney Wolff took place on February 1, 2010. The vista is on the road to the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile and has a beautiful view of the SOAR and Gemini telescopes and also of the site selected for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). The construction of the vista point is a tribute to Dr. Sidney C. Wolff’s leadership in enabling the construction of these world-class facilities on Cerro Pachón high in the Andes mountains. Dr. Wolff served as President of the SOAR Board and first Director of the Gemini Observatory. She is currently President of the LSST Corporation.

11 February 2010: A dramatic new image from the Gemini North telescope illustrates the dynamic and sometimes violent process of star birth. It also demonstrates the capabilities of new filters available to researchers using the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS).

27 January 2010: Explaining how the most massive stars are born, deep within their stellar nurseries, is one of the most persistent mysteries in modern astronomy. Now, observations at the Gemini Observatory provide convincing new evidence that these stellar heavyweights may be born in much the same manner as lightweights like our Sun.

5 January 2010: Using the Gemini South telescope in Chile, astronomers at UCLA have found dusty evidence for the formation of young, rocky planets around a star some 500 light years distant. But these potential extrasolar worlds are alien in an even more intriguing way… In the aftermath of collisions between planetary embryos around this star the researchers discovered that the dusty debris bears no resemblance to the planetary building blocks of our own Solar System.

4 January 2010: Using adaptive optics to remove atmospheric blurring, Gemini Observatory released an image today showing previously hidden forensic secrets at the ballistic core of the Homunculus Nebula, part of the explosive Eta Carinae star system.

21 December 2009: Astronomers have reported new observations of a remarkable binary star population in a well-known star cluster.

30 November 2009: Using NEWFIRM on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak, Veilleux, Rupke and Swaters have reported the discovery of warm H2 gas in the prototypical galactic wind of M82. They report filaments extending above and below the disk, roughly coincident with the location of the galactic wind in this galaxy.

15 October 2009: Informally known as the "Soap Bubble Nebula", this planetary nebula (officially known as PN G75.5+1.7) was discovered by amateur astronomer Dave Jurasevich on July 6th, 2008. It was noted and reported by Keith Quattrocchi and Mel Helm on July 17th, 2008.

5 October 2009: The White House announced this weekend that President Obama will host a “Star Party” on the White House lawn Wednesday evening.

12 August 2009: While far from a tropical rain forest, the equatorial region of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, has recently displayed tantalizing evidence that the parched, dry, ultra-frigid desert can support large-scale storms.

5 August 2009: Looking almost 11 billion years into the past, astronomers have measured the motions of stars for the first time in a very distant galaxy and clocked speeds upwards of one million miles per hour (about 1.6 million kilometers per hour), about twice the speed of our Sun through the Milky Way.

23 July 2009: Jupiter is sporting a glowing bruise after getting unexpectedly whacked by a small solar system object, according to astronomers using the Gemini North telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawai'i. A spectacular new mid-infrared image is available for download on this page.

30 April 2009: The Gemini Observatory has released the first color image of what astronomers are calling the most distant object ever seen in the universe. The object is what is known as a Gamma-ray burst (GRB) which are the most energetic single events known in the universe.

30 April 2009: The global citizen-science campaign GLOBE at Night 2009 recorded 80 percent more observations of the world’s dark skies than the program’s previous record—including double the number of digital measurements—thanks in large part to active participation and publicity from the network of 140 countries currently celebrating the International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009).

1 April 2009: On the nights of April 2-3 (3-4 UT) both Gemini telescopes participated in the “Around the World in 80 Telescopes” live, around the world control room webcast. Gemini was honored to be the first control room visit for the event when at 11:00 pm (HST) on April 2nd (9:00 am UT on April 3rd) Gemini presented a new video introduction to Gemini followed by a live visit to the Gemini North control room on Hawaii’s Mauna Kea hosted by Gemini’s Scott Fisher. Nineteen hours later, Gemini South participated in the event at Midnight (Chile time) on the night of April 3-4 (4:00 am UT on April 4th) when Gemini South astronomer Etienne Artigau hosted a visit to the Gemini South control room in Chile.

4 March 2009: Finding a needle in a haystack might be easy compared to finding two very similar black holes closely orbiting each other in a distant galaxy.

8 December 2008: The memorial service will be held at 2:30 PM on Saturday, Jan. 24, in the Frangipani Room at the Indiana Memorial Union in Bloomington. Friends and colleagues who wish to send thoughts to be shared at the memorial service should send them to Caty Pilachowski.

9 November 2008: Astronomers using the Gemini and Keck observatories obtain first direct images of a planetary family around a normal star

7 October 2008: A deep new image of the Virgo cluster has revealed monumental tendrils of ionized hydrogen gas 400,000 light-years long connecting the elliptical galaxy M86 and the disturbed spiral galaxy NGC 4438.