Announcement: Gemini Observatory

7 Diciembre 2020: Following is an update on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on NSF’s NOIRLab. Starting in mid-October 2020, science operations conducted with limited staff were re-established at Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) in Arizona and at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), Gemini South, and SOAR facilities in Chile after their suspension on 18 March 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, since mid-May 2020, the Gemini North telescope has been conducting observations from Maunakea. At KPNO, the Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope and WIYN 3.5-meter Telescope, as well as a number of tenant facilities, have restarted limited nighttime operations. The focus has been on continuity of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) and NEID instrument commissioning. We are currently able to continue science operations at KPNO while following all public health guidelines and our rigorous safety protocols developed over the past eight months, and are closely monitoring the …

22 Noviembre 2020: An international team of astronomers has identified the nature of Earth’s second known minimoon, 2020 CD3, following its discovery by the Catalina Sky Survey and follow-up imaging with the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab, earlier this year. Upon its discovery the object was compelling but mysterious, with astronomers unsure if it was a rare natural rocky object or a lost piece of space junk. Now, observations from a collection of telescopes including Gemini North on Hawai‘i’s Maunakea have shown 2020 CD3 to be natural in origin. The minimoon is a rocky remnant of a larger body and measures about 1–1.5 metres (3–5 feet) across — roughly the size of a large desk. The team also found that 2020 CD3 was only a temporary visitor to Earth — after spending 2.7 years in orbit it was ejected to roam the Solar System in April this year. As well …

20 Octubre 2020: On Monday 19 October 2020 the ninth edition of Viaje al Universo, one of the main Education and Outreach programs hosted by NOIRLab in Chile, began. Its goal is to share the wonders of the Universe, the excitement of astronomy, and the latest technological advances at NOIRLab’s facilities with students and families in Chile and other Spanish-speaking audiences. Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s Viaje al Universo has been converted to a virtual program. The program includes talks on astronomical topics, the operation of telescopes, solar observations, and observations of the Moon and planets. We will also have a career panel with observatory professionals who will talk about the next generation of big telescopes. On the opening day, the winner of the National Prize for Exact Sciences and Director of AURA in Chile, Dr. Mario Hamuy, gave a talk titled El Sol Negro (The Black Sun in English) in …

9 Octubre 2020: NSF’s NOIRLab and AURA would like to extend their congratulations to the 2020 Physics Nobel Prize Laureates Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel, and Andrea Ghez. In the wake of Penrose's theoretical work that showed black holes must exist, Genzel and Ghez confirmed that there is a supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The international Gemini Observatory, a program of NSF’s NOIRLab, is proud to have played a part in Ghez's observations with the Gemini North adaptive optics system, along with the W.M. Keck and Subaru observatories all on Hawai‘i’s Maunakea. Ghez’s research team analyzed precise positional and spectroscopic data of a star known as S0-2 over two decades as it followed its elongated 16-year orbit around Sagittarius A* — the Milky Way’s central supermassive black hole. The star reached its closest approach to Sag A* in May 2018, when it was at a distance of only …

7 Octubre 2020: We are continuously monitoring and actively responding to the COVID-19 situation, including taking measures to ensure the safety of our staff, their families and our communities. Our top operational priority at all sites has been the restart and continuity of science operations. A recent update on progress towards restarting science operations can be found on our COVID-19 web page. We have assessed the possibility of reopening our sites in Arizona, Hawai‘i and Chile for public visits, but after careful consideration we have concluded the sites will need to remain closed to public visits until at least 1 February 2021. This includes public visits to the Kitt Peak Visitor Center — and the public access to the Kitt Peak site via the mountain road — as well as public visits to our facilities in Hawai‘i (Gemini North) and Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachón in Chile (CTIO and Gemini South). With COVID-19 …

2 Septiembre 2020: After receiving its new short name, NSF’s NOIRLab, earlier in 2020, a targeted effort was started to move NOIRlab’s public Internet presence from the interim website at nationalastro.org to a new domain at noirlab.edu. This public site has now been launched and is the main web portal for the public and media. The new website offers a complete archive of all NOIRLab information for the public and media — more than 5000 images with rich contextual metadata, hundreds of videos, news, print products, fulldome sequences for planetariums to download and show in their domes, and more. The assets are freely available for download and use under a Creative Commons Attribution license. The site also offers a historical perspective through the archives of newsletters from NOAO and Gemini. The website is bilingual in English and Spanish. Each of NOIRLab’s five Programs, the international Gemini Observatory, Kitt Peak National Observatory, Cerro Tololo …

21 Agosto 2020: On Tuesday 25 August, astronomers will release the final report from the Satellite Constellations 1 workshop during a virtual press conference hosted by the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab and the American Astronomical Society (AAS). The briefing, to be conducted via Zoom, will begin at 2:00 pm US Eastern Daylight Time (18:00 UTC) and last 1 hour. Registration instructions appear below. When SpaceX began launching clusters of 60 Starlink satellites in May 2019, astronomers reacted with alarm. Not only are the Starlink satellites brighter than anyone expected, but there could be tens of thousands more like them as companies in the rapidly growing commercial space industry strive to provide satellite-based communication services to underserved and remote areas. Constellations of bright satellites in low Earth orbit will fundamentally change ground-based optical and infrared astronomy and could impact the appearance of the night sky for stargazers worldwide. SATCON1 gathered more than 250 astronomers, …

23 Junio 2020: The inaugural edition of The NOIRLab Mirror is now available. Our new, twice-yearly newsletter with information focusing on NOIRLab’s user communities showcases the science, technology, and program developments across the five NOIRLab Programs: Community Science and Data Center (CSDC), Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), Gemini Observatory, Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), and Vera C. Rubin Observatory Operations. The inaugural issue also features the perspectives of five distinguished scientists on the roles of a national observatory. “The choice of ‘The Mirror’ for the name of this newsletter series is more than a reflection of the central role of optics in our field,” writes NOIRLab Director Pat McCarthy in the first issue. “A mirror allows us to see ourselves as others do. As we launch NOIRLab and this newsletter series, it is important that we be aware of how you see us in the present, how you understand the aspirations of our …

11 Junio 2020: Following is an update on the impact of the COVID-19 virus on NSF’s NOIRLab. Since the night of Tuesday, 19 May 2020, the Gemini North telescope has been conducting observations from Maunakea. Operations continue at the Gemini North Base facility with minimal daytime and nighttime staffing. NOIRLab is developing site-specific plans to restart mountain- and base-operations across all other NOIRLab locations. Our sites in Chile and Arizona remain closed. In these unprecedented circumstances, our first priority remains the health and safety of our staff, visitors and other users of the mountains. The timing of the restarts will differ for each location and will reflect national and regional regulations, including those of the Tohono O’odham Nation at Kitt Peak, and our procedures will comply with local safety guidelines. Even as many US states and countries worldwide begin to reopen, conditions in Arizona and Chile do not meet any of the metrics …

9 Junio 2020: #ShutDownSTEM, Wednesday 10 June 2020, is a day of international protest of systemic racism in research and academia. STEM and research professionals are asked to stop their normal activities of research, teaching and meetings for one day, in the wake of the killing of George Floyd and others. The organizers call for a halt to “business as usual” to accommodate conversations, learning and reflection on systemic racism in research and academia and to create a plan of action for the future. Details about the #ShutDownSTEM movement can be found on their website. We at NOIRLab acknowledge historical inequality, including the underrepresentation of African Americans in astronomy and we do not condone any form of racial discrimination. We have encouraged all staff to consider participating in learning and discussion about diversity, equity, and inclusion on 10 June. Staff may desire to be actively engaged, or to use the day for personal …

18 Mayo 2020: After an internal Operations Restart Readiness Review on Friday, 15 May, the northern telescope of the international Gemini Observatory, Gemini North in Hawai‘i, has been given the green light on their plan to restart nighttime observations on the night of Tuesday, 19 May, with a minimal on-site crew. The restart is possible because the governor of Hawai‘i has given permission for observatories to open, and because Hawai‘i has a very low number of active COVID-19 cases. At Friday’s review, a committee determined that appropriate safety protocols are in place and operating, all local and national regulations are met, sufficient supplies of personal protective equipment are on hand with a reasonable expectation of a functioning supply chain, and other operational protocols are in place. Most of NOIRLab’s staff at our three sites, Tucson, Arizona, Hilo, Hawai‘i, and La Serena in Chile, will continue to telework at least throughout the month of …

20 Noviembre 2019: In early November, the GEMMA (Gemini in the Era of Multi-Messenger Astronomy) project brought together science communications professionals to explore the unique opportunities and challenges of communicating Multi-Messenger and Time-Domain Astronomy, two rapidly growing fields in astronomy. Funded by the US National Science Foundation, this communications summit hosted more than 30 participants for two days at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, an AURA-managed facility. Until the mid-20th century, our view of the Universe was limited almost entirely to the narrow band of light that could penetrate the Earth’s atmosphere and was visible either to our eyes or to sensitive photographic plates loaded at the focus of increasingly large telescopes. The first major expansion of our view came with the development of radio astronomy, leading to the realization that the Universe could look very different when seen through different “eyes” tuned to a different type of radiation. …

10 Noviembre 2019: In a recent collaborative study, Gemini Observatory and Subaru Telescope uncover the massive (and larger than expected) structure of a distant supercluster. Mapping the formation of these ancient superclusters is a critical step in understanding the dark matter and dark energy that shape these structures. Read an excerpt about this research from Subaru Telescopeʻs science highlight below. A team of astronomers used the Subaru Telescope and Gemini North telescope to reveal that a well-known distant supercluster is part of a larger structure at least twice as extended as what was already known. The galaxies associated with the supercluster are thought to have formed simultaneously over a vast area and then evolved to their observed states. Using the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) Gemini North telescope and the Faint Object Camera and Spectrograph (FOCAS) on Subaru Telescope, the team has revealed that the supercluster CL1604, a distant supercluster located about 7.3 billion …

22 Agosto 2019: Every galaxy has a story, and every galaxy has been many others in the past (unlike for humans, this is not purely metaphorical, as galaxies grow via hierarchical assembly). Generally speaking, the most massive galaxies have led the most interesting lives, often within teeming galactic metropolises where they are subject to frequent interactions with assorted neighbors. These interactions influence the structure and motions of the stars, gas, and dark matter that make up the galaxies. They also affect the growth of the supermassive black holes at the galaxies’ centers. Although the detailed life stories of most galaxies will remain forever uncertain, the key thematic elements may be surmised in various ways. A particularly powerful probe of a galaxy’s dynamical structure is called integral field spectroscopy (IFS), which dissects a galaxy’s light at each point within the spectrograph’s field of view. In this way, it is possible to construct a map …

5 Agosto 2019: Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io brought astronomers and geologists together to reveal that this moon’s hot spots fluctuate on unexpected timescales. The team utilized the Gemini North telescope and the W.M. Keck Observatory, both located on Maunakea, Hawaiʻi Island. The Gemini observations, which provided about 80% of the data for the study, employed the high-resolution adaptive optics system ALTAIR combined with the Gemini Near InfraRed Imager and spectrograph (NIRI). The researchers conducted a total of 271 observations between 2013 and 2018 and published their results in the July 2019 issue of The Astronomical Journal and the June 28, 2019 issue Geophysical Research Letters. While whizzing around Jupiter in an elliptical orbit with a period of only 1.8 days, Io’s interior is warmed by the varying pull of Jupiter’s gravity, roughly similar to how the Earth’s moon causes tides on our planet. This “tidal heating” powers Io’s volcanoes. However, the shape of …

25 Julio 2019: By observing a single star orbiting around the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy, a team of astronomers have tested Einstein’s one hundred-year-old theory of General Relativity in an unprecedented new regime. Unlike Sir Isaac Newton’s law of gravity, which states that matter pulls on other matter across empty space, General Relativity theory proposes that massive objects like supermassive black holes distort both space and time, which in turn affects the motions of objects around them. The team’s result: “Einstein’s right, at least for now,” said Andrea Ghez at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), a co-lead author of the research. Gemini Observatory played an integral part in this research using the Gemini North telescope on Maunakea in Hawai‘i with the Near Infrared Integral Field Spectrometer (NIFS). Using NIFS the team acquired critical spectroscopic observations of the star, known as S0-2, as it orbited …

29 Mayo 2019: To have, or not to have dark matter? That is the question. In early 2018, a team of researchers led by Pieter van Dokkum of Yale University shook up the astrophysics world when they announced that the dwarf, “ultra-diffuse galaxy,” which was referred to by van Dokkum as NGC 1052-DF2, is almost devoid of dark matter. Their report, published in the journal Nature, acknowledged that this conclusion depended on the distance to the galaxy. Nevertheless, the researchers presented evidence in favor of a distance that implied the galaxy was seriously light on dark matter. The problem is that the formation of galaxies without dark matter doesn’t fit most theories of galaxy evolution. If van Dokkum and his team are correct then astrophysicists have some serious explaining to do. The original Gemini summary of the van Dokkum et al. work can be found here. The van Dokkum team has also published …

17 Abril 2019: The Gemini telescopes helped identify low-metallicity stars by gathering medium-resolution spectroscopic GMOS data for 666 bright stars under poor weather conditions. These data provide a unique opportunity to explore the chemical evolution of the Milky Way and look at the enrichment of star-forming gas clouds in the early Universe. Low-metalicity stars (stars with less than 1% of the elements heavier than Hydrogen and Helium than the Sun contains) are the Rosetta Stones of stellar astrophysics. Encoded in the atmosphere of these low-mass, long-lived relics are the signatures of the processes by which the first chemical elements were cooked up, perhaps as early as a few tens of millions of years after the Big Bang. These stars are believed to be the direct descendants of the first stars to be born in the Universe, which were massive and short-lived. Hence, second-generation, low-metallicity stars are the artifacts which help us write the …

6 Febrero 2019: Astronomers using adaptive optics on the 8-meter Gemini North telescope have resolved, for the first time in near-infrared light, a giant elliptical galaxy with a young radio jet down to unprecedented scales. The observations also show how the jets, emanating from a black hole at the center of this galaxy, are heating the interstellar medium, which may have a significant impact on the evolution of the host galaxy. Using adaptive optics (AO) and near-infrared imaging on the 8-meter Gemini North telescope in Hawai‘i, a team of astronomers lead by PhD student Henry Zovaro (The Australian National University) report the discovery of shocked molecular and ionized gas resulting from a jet-driven feedback coming from the center of a compact radio galaxy. The discovery offers important information on how such activity can influence the evolution of its host galaxy. The galaxy, which goes by the name MCG 5-4-18, is a nearby giant …

17 Diciembre 2018: Extremely high-resolution speckle observations by Gemini South deliver critical details on a star (or stars) lying in the apparent path of remnants from the early formation of our Solar System. In early March of 2017 the outer Solar System object Orcus, and its one known satellite Vanth, were on an apparent collision course with a star – at least that’s the way it appeared from our perspective on Earth. Original calculations showed that Orcus would pass in front of a relatively bright star and temporarily block the star’s light. However, later refinements to the calculations revealed that the shadow of Vanth would trace a path across the Earth’s surface. These events, known as occultations, are only visible from a thin swath on Earth’s surface and calculations have small uncertainties due to observations of the orbits and estimates of the objects’ size. But even with these uncertainties, what happened surprised astronomers. …