Announcements 2003

21 January 2003: Violent bush fires ravaging Canberra destroyed most of the facilities at the Stromlo Observatory. Fortunately there were no additional human injuries or casualties. More details on the loss of Gemini's Near-Infrared Integral Field Spectrograph can be found at the links below. Astronomy projects in ruins as observatory obliterated Aussie Fires Destroy Mount Stromlo Observatory Australian fire felt in Hilo Gemini Near-Infrared Integral-Field Spectrograph (NIFS): Destroyed by Bushfire January 2003 Historic Australian observatory gutted The Mount Stromlo Fires: A Major Heritage Loss For Australian Astronomy Mount Stromlo Observatory Destroyed by Fire Pictures of the aftermath of the fire of Saturday, 18 January 2003, at Mount Stromlo Observatory

9 January 2003: Gemini South Assistant Astronomer Dr. Michael Ledlow has helped confirm the existence of a giant, subatomic particle jet streaming from a spiral galaxy similar to the Milky Way. Though long known to be associated with elliptical and merging galaxies, the discovery of such jets streaming from a spiral galaxy raises significant questions about current theories on jet production. The discovery was made possible by the combination of radio, optical and infrared observations. The findings were reported at the American Astronomical Society's meeting in Seattle. Dr. Ledlow's infrared work at Gemini South was instrumental in complementing research by the team leader, Dr. William Keel with the University of Alabama, and Dr. Frazer Owen with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. The galaxy, known as 0313-192, first came to the attention of Dr. Owen more than 20 years ago during a galaxy survey he conducted using the Very Large Array (VLA). Gemini South's …

8 January 2003: Found in the harsh environment of the Carina Nebula, using the Blanco telescope.