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3 Agosto 2006: NOAO astronomer Tod Lauer is the leader of a team selected by NASA to further develop Destiny, the Dark Energy Space Telescope, a small spacecraft that would detect and observe more than 3,000 supernovae to measure the expansion history of the Universe. For more, see NOAO Press Release 06-10.

31 Julio 2006: A team of Gemini Observatory astronomers led by Tom Geballe, and Spanish colleague Francisco Najarro (Instituto de Estructura de la Materia, Madrid), have proven that the star at the core of a spectacular cosmic bow shock near the Galactic Center is indeed an evolved massive star. It may also be the youngest, hottest and most massive star in the region of the Galactic Center. The nature of the Galactic Center source IRS-8, one of the brightest compact mid-infrared sources in the central infrared cluster, was unknown until the advent of adaptive optics (AO) imaging in the infrared. Its dimensions on the sky are roughly 1 arcsecond across, and it appeared as a fuzzy blob to observers until its surprising structure was revealed at Gemini during early AO observations in 2000. In an previous article, Geballe et al. (2004) showed that the IRS-8 bow shock would be a straightforward consequence of …

26 Julio 2006: The box shows the distribution of neutral hydrogen (maroon) and ionized hydrogen (light blue) around the most energetic star-forming sources (yellow dots) in the very early universe (a redshift of 9.3). This image is a frame from an animation that illustrates the Science Nugget article in the second TMT Newscast.

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20 Julio 2006: Sperello di Serego Alighieri (Observatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri), Barbara Lanzoni (Observatorio Astronomico di Bologna) and Inger Jørgensen (Gemini Observatory) have just released new Gemini/HST results confirming that big galaxies form first and smaller ones later. This spread happens both in rich galaxy clusters and in the general low density field. Furthermore, they show that the first early-type galaxies that formed were the most massive ones in galaxy clusters. As the 100th refereed paper based on GMOS-North data, this work represents a significant milestone for the productivity of the Gemini telescopes and its instrument set. GMOS-North was commissioned on the Gemini North Telescope in late 2001. There are now many studies of the distant universe that have explored the formation and evolution of galaxies when the universe was less than half its current age (see related Gemini stories from: January 5, 2004, May 18, 2004 and July 7, 2004). The emerging …

18 Julio 2006: The Hands-On Optics program run by NOAO educational outreach, SPIE and the Optical Society of America has spent part of the summer conducting informal science education activities for the Boys & Girls Clubs in Sells and South Tucson.

11 Julio 2006: This image from the Survey for Ionization in Neutral Gas Galaxies (SINGG), an NOAO Survey Program, shows a strong interaction between the barred spiral NGC1512 and its Blue Compact Dwarf companion, NGC1510. This pair (imaged with the CTIO 1.5-meter telescope) illustrate how galaxy interactions are able to trigger starbursts. Several new images from SINGG have been added to the NOAO Image Gallery.

28 Junio 2006: With the successful completion of the project’s Conceptual Design Review, the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) has a science vision, technical requirements, a thoroughly reviewed design and a powerful team carrying the work forward. A new electronic newsletter, edited at NOAO, will keep you informed about the latest project happenings. Click here to see the first issue and subscribe.

15 Junio 2006: Two studies featured at the American Astronomical Society Meeting in Calgary, Canada, bring into focus the core and evolution of our nearest large galaxy neighbor. Extremely sharp adaptive optics images of the center of M31 taken by a team led by Knut Olsen of NOAO allowed the analysis of thousands of individual stars, which indicates a long-stable environment around the galaxy’s core. Gemini Release

1 Junio 2006: The new NOAO/NSO Newsletter includes articles on the selection of Cerro Pachón in Chile for the LSST, the TMT Conceptual Design Review, and an update on the Tohono O’odham Nation, the NSF, VERITAS and Kitt Peak.

18 Mayo 2006: In recent weeks the Gemini Science Archive (GSA) has passed three significant milestones and attained new levels of use unforeseen in the early days of its development. In this article, we have decided to reflect on the origins of the GSA, its current status in service to the Gemini community, and our plans for its future expansion into the world of the Virtual Observatory (VO). The first release of the GSA for public use, version 1.0, was in September 2004. At that time we expected its main function to be as a complex data repository, albeit one in which considerable “metadata” was stored along with the observation data. (Metadata is typically information that is itself not of direct scientific importance, but aids in the characterization of the science data. A good example would be data describing weather conditions during an observation run.) We have come a long way in the …

17 Mayo 2006: A new educational outreach program at Gemini Observatory is pairing local students with astronomers to do cutting-edge astronomy with an 8-meter telescope. The first observations from this program were executed early on the morning of May 13 when three Hilo High School students observed the disintegrating comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3, and observed the comet in both visible and infrared light. The observations show the classic “head and tail” of the comet as well as multiple pieces of the comet’s body breaking off. “As a pilot project we are beyond thrilled that this worked as well as it did,” said Gemini’s Head of Science, Dr. Jean-René Roy. “These students are extremely engaged in the process. I expect we’ll see them back at Gemini someday as professional astronomers!” Hilo High School student Nicholas Higa and classmates Keane Nakatsu and Ken Oyadomari began working with Gemini astronomer Scott Fisher in March, 2006 when it …

17 Mayo 2006: Cerro Pachón, an 8,800-foot (2,682-meter) mountain peak in northern Chile, has been selected as the site for the proposed Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). The mountain is already home to the Gemini South telescope and the SOAR telescope. LSST Press Release

12 Mayo 2006: The NOAO Long Range Plan for 2006-2010 has been published (login required). Highlights include our continued involvement in the development of large telescopes (LSST and GSMT), as well as creating ways to access the large amount of data that will be generated (DPP and NVO).

4 Mayo 2006: The giant planet is in opposition this month, and the Kitt Peak Visitor Center is highlighting this chance to see it large in the night sky with an event called "Just Look at Jupiter!" On Saturday, May 20, Adam Showman of the UA Lunar and Planetary Lab will give a presentation, followed by observations of Jupiter (and other deep space objects) with the 20-inch RC telescope in the Visitor Center observatory.

21 Abril 2006: A new Gemini Observatory image of NGC 246, nicknamed the "Skull Nebula," shows what can happen as the outer atmosphere of a fast-moving, dying star similar in composition to the Sun (in several billion years) pushes through its local cloud of interstellar gas and dust.

20 Abril 2006: Astronomers traditionally attribute mid-infrared emission from young newly-forming stars to circumstellar disks. However, new observations using the Thermal-Region Camera and Spectrograph (T-ReCS) on Gemini South reveal that in at least one case the mid-infrared emission from a young stellar source is associated with a spectacular outflow. In a paper appeared in the May 1, 2006 Astrophysical Journal Letters, Gemini astronomer James De Buizer, offers a caution that mid-infrared emission from young stellar objects can be explained by processes other than circumstellar disks. The Gemini observations were focused on a young massive star in the G35.20-0.74 region in the outskirts of the Serpens constellation 7500 light years away. This young star has a known collimated outflow, which was first detected from its radio emission (white contours in Figure 2b). The new observations reveal a monopolar jet-like feature in the mid-infrared (Figure 2a). It is argued that this is thermal continuum emission …

13 Abril 2006: New high-resolution measurements of the famous massive star Eta Carinae using the NOAO-built Phoenix infrared spectrograph on Gemini South show that the star's bipolar nebula is the result of an aspherical explosion during its mid-19th century outburst, as opposed to the nebula being “pinched” by surrounding material.

12 Abril 2006: Eta Carinae The giant variable star Eta Carinae is one of the most remarkable stars in the southern sky. It lies just under 8,000 light-years away and, at about 100 times the mass of our Sun, is one of the most massive stars known. Eta Carinae is about five million times brighter than the Sun and is the brightest object outside of the solar system in the mid-infrared at 10-20 microns. It radiates most of its luminosity in the infrared part of the spectrum. First catalogued by the English astronomer Edmond Halley in 1677, Eta Carinae's brightness has evolved dramatically throughout recent history. The most spectacular events took place during the nineteenth century, when it outshone all bright stars except Sirius. It underwent a great eruption in the mid-19th century and ejected many solar masses of gas and dust. We now observe this mass loss as a spectacular bipolar nebula …

4 Abril 2006: This image is a wide-field view of the star-forming region NGC 281 taken with the WIYN 0.9-meter at Kitt Peak National Observatory. It is featured as the ground based image for this Hubble Heritage Image Release.