geminiann02001 — Announcement
Phoenix: Spectra from the commissioning and Demonstration Science run
22 February 2002: Phoenix, a high resolution infrared spectrograph, originally built for use on the NOAO 4-m telescopes at Kitt Peak and Cerro Tololo, underwent commissioning on Gemini South in December 2001. The first science observing programs were performed in early February 2002. They comprised a Demonstration Science program (described below) and individual science projects from the Gemini queue. Both the commissioning and the science runs were highly successful. Introduction to Demonstration Science Our universe initially was virtually entirely hydrogen and helium, as a result of the Big Bang. The heavier elements (which astronomers call "metals") that now make up a small fraction of the universe's mass and our sun's mass (but much of the mass of the earth, and our bodies) were made inside previous generations of stars, which exploded and ejected their material into space. Studies have shown that spiral galaxies, including our Milky Way, have higher abundances of "metals" in …