Press Releases

12 September 2005: Fulfilling one of its central operational goals in a big way, the SOuthern Astrophysical Research Telescope (SOAR) on Cerro Pachón in Chile made the first observations of the glowing remains of the most distant explosion ever seen in the Universe. The international telescope then provided the first accurate measurement of just how incredibly far away this explosion appears to be.

8 September 2005: Astronomers have glimpsed dusty debris around an essentially dead star where gravity and radiation should have long ago removed any sign of dust. The discovery might provide insights into our own solar system’s eventual demise several billion years from now.

30 August 2005: A comprehensive survey of more than 4,000 elliptical and lenticular galaxies in 93 nearby galaxy clusters has found a curious case of galactic “downsizing.”

26 August 2005: The Gemini Observatory released a pair of images today that capture the dynamics of two very different interactions in space. One is a cold, dark dust cloud that resembles an ethereal-looking Chinese dragon. The other shows a distant duo of galaxies locked in a knot-like embrace that could portend the long-term future of our own Milky Way galaxy.

22 August 2005: The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) has been awarded a four-year, $14.2 million Cooperative Agreement with the National Science Foundation to design and develop a world-class, 8.4-meter telescope scheduled for completion in 2012.

10 August 2005: Like archaeologists unearthing a 'lost city,' astronomers using the 8-meter Gemini South telescope have revealed that the galaxy NGC 300 has a large, faint extended disk made of ancient stars, enlarging the known diameter of the galaxy by a factor of two or more.

29 July 2005: Gemini Observatory has obtained a preliminary spectrum of 2003 UB313, the so-called "10th planet". These observations were obtained on January 25, 2005 by Chad Trujillo, a Gemini staff member who is also on the discovery team for 2003 UB313, the existence of which was formally announced by the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, MA on July 29, 2005. The discovery team (Mike Brown of Caltech, Chad Trujillo of Gemini and David Rabinowitz of Yale) are still uncertain of the exact size of the body, but report that it must be Pluto-sized or larger. The body is the most distant solar system body known to orbit the sun at 97 AU from the sun, over 3 times farther away than planet Pluto. The "planet" was originally discovered in late December 2004 with data collected from the Samuel Oschin 1.2 meter telescope at Palomar Mountain, CA.

20 July 2005: A relatively young star located about 300 light-years away is greatly improving our understanding of the formation of Earth-like planets.

8 July 2005: High school teachers making observations with the research telescopes at Kitt Peak National Observatory as part of an intensive professional development workshop obtained some of the earliest multicolor imaging and spectra of a newly exploded massive star in a nearby galaxy.

30 June 2005: How can you watch the planned first-of-its-kind collision between a comet and a spacecraft from Earth this weekend, even if your night skies don’t allow a direct view?

23 June 2005: All of the major telescopes of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) on Kitt Peak are observing comet Tempel 1 for several nights before and after the planned Deep Impact event. Indeed, by the night of July 8, Kitt Peak National Observatory will have been used for 43 nights in 2005 in scientific support of the planned collision at approximately 10:52 p.m. local time on July 3 between the icy comet and a special probe released from the main Deep Impact spacecraft.

7 June 2005: The Kitt Peak Visitor Center will host a special public program on July 3, 2005, the night of the expected encounter between the NASA Deep Impact spacecraft and Comet Tempel 1.

17 May 2005: Using a giant telescope on Mauna Kea Hawaii is a dream for most amateur sky watchers. Recently a Canadian amateur astronomy group took advantage of a rare opportunity and used one of the largest telescopes in the world, the Gemini 8-meter telescope, to look more deeply into the remains of a particular stellar nursery than anyone ever has.

28 April 2005: LGS lasers have a total power output that is less than a refrigerator light bulb; Laser Guide Stars on Mauna Kea can not be used for any military-related activities; LGS lasers produce an artificial star that is invisible to the naked eye; Atmospheric scattering of LGS light is only dimly visible within a few hundred feet of an observatory; LGS are formed in a 6 mile (10 kilometer) thick layer of sodium in the atmosphere about 50 miles (90 kilometers) above the Earth’s surface. The high-altitude sodium is delivered by meteors burning up in our atmosphere.

15 February 2005: Advance reservations are required for this free daytime program, which includes: a special tour of the WIYN 3.5-meter telescope (normally closed to public visitors), solar viewing, hands-on science activities, and talks by the director of Kitt Peak National Observatory and a leading cosmologist from the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory about Einstein’s continuing influence on astronomy. Einstein was born 126 years ago in Germany on March 14, 1879, so we will be having some early birthday cake in his honor as well!

13 January 2005: Astronomers using the Gemini South 8-meter telescope in Chile have observed new details in the dusty disk surrounding the nearby star Beta Pictoris which show that a large collision between planetary-sized bodies may have occurred there as recently as the past few decades.

11 January 2005: The LSST Corporation has awarded a $2.3 million contract to the University of Arizona Steward Observatory Mirror Lab to purchase the glass and begin engineering work for the 8.4-meter diameter main mirror for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). This award was announced today in San Diego at the 205th meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

11 January 2005: A significant number of red giant stars whose output varies on timescales as short as 10 minutes has been found in the nearby Ursa Minor dwarf galaxy by an astronomer at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) and a summer undergraduate student. This surprising variability occurs on a much shorter timescale than previously thought possible for such mature, giant stars.

10 January 2005: A pair of beautiful images released today in San Diego at the 205th meeting of the American Astronomical Society marks the formal debut of the Gemini Observatory’s Image Gallery.

10 January 2005: The National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) has teamed with the Spitzer Science Center (SSC) to offer a dozen graduates from NOAO’s advanced teacher professional development program a unique chance to make research-quality observations with NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope.