Press Releases: Gemini Observatory

17 Agosto 2017: By combining the light collecting power of Gemini North's 8-meter mirror with a high-resolution spectrograph at the neighboring Canada-France-Hawaiʻi Telescope on Maunakea, astronomers probe a speeding bullet in our galaxy. The researchers suggest that the celestial speedster is likely a white dwarf star expelled from a supernova explosion and sent hurtling through our galactic neighborhood some 50 million years ago.

30 Junio 2017: Very detailed Gemini Observatory images peel back Jupiter’s atmospheric layers to support the NASA/JPL Juno spacecraft in its quest to understand the giant planet’s atmosphere.

2 Junio 2017: Gemini Observatory astronomer Meg Schwamb is this year’s recipient of the Carl Sagan Medal for Excellence in Public Communication in Planetary Science. The prize is awarded annually by the Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) of the American Astronomical Society (AAS). Schwamb is being honored for the creation and development of new tools and venues to facilitate planetary science communication. She will receive the medal in October at the Division of Planetary Sciences’ annual meeting hosted in Provo, Utah.

2 Junio 2017: On July 1, 2017, Dr. Laura Ferrarese begins a one-year term as Interim Director of the Gemini Observatory, which is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) on behalf of the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the International Gemini participants which include the United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, and Chile.

5 Abril 2017: Gemini Observatory announces the development of a major new facility-class broadband optical and near-infrared imager and spectrograph named OCTOCAM.

4 Abril 2017: It’s a kinder, gentler Neptune, says Gemini astronomer Meg Schwamb in describing a new result that leaves little doubt about how Neptune gently swept a class of planetoid pairs into the outer Solar System.

5 Enero 2017: Gemini Observatory provides critical rapid follow up observations of a Fast Radio Burst – one of modern astronomy's greatest enigmas. These observations provide the first details on a burst's distant extragalactic host.

29 Diciembre 2016: A new image released today by the Gemini Observatory offers a deep, revealing view into an active stellar nursery. The infrared view peels back layers of obscuring gas and dust to unshroud the inner workings of star formation – and the chaos that accompanies the beautifully messy process of starbirth.

9 Noviembre 2016: Astronomers using critical observations from the Gemini Observatory have found the strongest evidence yet that the formation of more massive stars follow a path similar to their lower-mass brethren - but on steroids!

12 Octubre 2016: An international team of astronomers, using the Gemini Multi-conjugate adaptive optics System (GeMS) and the high resolution camera GSAOI, brought the ancient globular cluster NGC 6624 into razor-sharp focus and determined its age with very high accuracy － a challenging observation even from space. In addition to producing a beautiful image, this work ultimately helps astronomers to better understand the formation and evolution of our Galaxy during its earliest development when the Universe was less than two billion years old.

24 Agosto 2016: Using the world’s most powerful telescopes, an international team of astronomers has discovered a massive galaxy that consists almost entirely of Dark Matter. Using the W. M. Keck Observatory and the Gemini North telescope – both on Maunakea, Hawai‘i – the team found a galaxy whose mass is almost entirely Dark Matter. The findings are being published in The Astrophysical Journal.

1 Agosto 2016: Using the world’s most powerful telescopes, an international team of astronomers has discovered a massive galaxy that consists almost entirely of Dark Matter. Using the W. M. Keck Observatory and the Gemini North telescope – both on Maunakea, Hawai‘i – the team found a galaxy whose mass is almost entirely Dark Matter. The findings are being published in The Astrophysical Journal.

18 Julio 2016: Gemini Observatory plays a key role in the latest harvest of over 100 confirmed exoplanets from NASA’s K2 mission, the repurposed Kepler spacecraft. Three instruments on the Gemini North telescope delivered precise images verifying many of the candidate stars as planetary system hosts. Researchers note that these systems could contain a considerable number of rocky, potentially earthlike exoplanets.

6 Julio 2016: As the Juno mission begins exploring Jupiter in our Solar System, scientists explore a solo world that researchers say looks more similar to Jupiter than any exoplanet yet discovered.

17 Junio 2016: The world’s most advanced adaptive optics system reveals “shocking” details on star formation in a new image released today by the Gemini Observatory.

5 Abril 2016: Astronomers using the 8-meter Gemini North telescope on Hawaii’s Maunakea have probed an enigmatic, and unexpected, supermassive black hole dominating the core of a large galaxy in the cosmic backwaters.

5 Febrero 2016: The National Science Board (NSB) and the international Gemini Board have authorized the National Science Foundation (NSF) to award a new 6-year, $208 million cooperative agreement to the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. (AURA) for the management and operation of the Gemini Observatory.

21 Enero 2016: Today, in the journal Science, Australian scientist Keith Bannister announced findings that might help solve a 30-year old mystery.

12 Noviembre 2015: The Gemini Planet Imager Exoplanet Survey (GPIES) is an ambitious three-year study dedicated to imaging young Jupiters and debris disks around nearby stars using the GPI instrument installed on the Gemini South telescope in Chile. On November 12, at the 47th annual meeting of the AAS’s Division for Planetary Sciences in Washington DC, Franck Marchis, Chair of the Exoplanet Research Thrust of the SETI Institute and a scientist involved in the project since 2004, will report on the status of the survey, emphasizing some discoveries made in its first year.

25 Septiembre 2015: A new Gemini Observatory image reveals the remarkable “fireworks” that accompany the birth of stars. The image captures in unprecedented clarity the fascinating structures of a gas jet complex emanating from a stellar nursery at supersonic speeds. The striking new image hints at the dynamic (and messy) process of star birth. Researchers believe they have also found a collection of runaway (orphan) stars that result from all this activity..