Gemini News Archive
GNIRS Recovery
Web Feature | 2007 May 15
For some unknown reason the GNIRS temperature controller failed, resulting in temperatures near 200° C for an undetermined period of time. After the initial inspection, it was obvious that some components were damaged, but many were clearly fine.
Most Massive Galaxies have Surprisingly Diverse Origins
Web Feature | 2007 May 14
An Australian team used the Gemini South Telescope to find that the most massive galaxies evolve through a variety of mechanisms which are dependent on the mass of their cluster environment.
Are Short Gamma-ray Bursts Cosmic Tricksters?
Web Feature | 2007 April 18
Analysis of nine short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) observed with Gemini, Magellan, and the Hubble Space Telescope reveals that the progenitors of these GRBs may reside in faint host galaxies at redshifts of z = 1.1 and beyond.
Featherweight Celestial Pair Has Uncertain Future Together
Press Release | 2007 April 4
Astronomers have serendipitously discovered a record-breaking pair of low-mass objects with an extreme orbital separation. The petite objects, each of which has a mass less than 100 times that of Jupiter, are separated by more than 5,000 times the distance between the Sun and Earth
The Delicate Trails of Star Birth
Press Release | 2007 March 22
An image released today by the Gemini Observatory brings into focus a new and remarkably detailed view of supersonic "bullets" of gas and the wakes created as they pierce through clouds of molecular hydrogen in the Orion Nebula.
Giant Interstellar Jet Stream Revealed by TEXES
Web Feature | 2007 March 2
The instrument TEXES on Gemini North mapped the star-forming region IRS2 located deep within the molecular cloud associated with the giant H II region W51.
Comet McNaught Captured from Cerro Pachon
Web Feature | 2007 January 19
Gemini South telescope on the night of January 18th captured this image of Comet McNaught in the twilight sky. Surprising even veteran comet researchers, McNaught has become the brightest comet visible in over 40 years.
Tightening the (Asteroid) Belt around Zeta Leporis
Web Feature | 2007 January 19
New mid-infrared images of the Zeta Leporis circumstellar disk obtained with T-ReCS on Gemini South have for the first time revealed what researchers are calling an "exo-asteroid belt" around another star.
Some Rare Abnormal Stars may have White Dwarf Parents to Blame
Press Release | 2007 January 8
Astronomers have announced the discovery of huge quantities of an unusual variety of oxygen in two very rare types of stars, suggesting that the origin of these oddball stars may lie in the physics behind the mergers of white dwarf star pairs.
Small Warm Doughnut Feeds Theories of Extragalactic Black Holes
Press Release | 2007 January 8
An international team of astronomers used a novel approach to peer deeply into the energetic core of the nearby galaxy Centaurus A and set stringent constraints on its size and characteristics, indicating that it is likely quite petite and clumpy.
Gemini Welcomes the New Year with "Wide Eyes"
Web Feature | 2006 December 19
The images were obtained as part of a program to capture a time-lapse sequence of the Gemini telescopes in operation during the course of one night.
Nature's Tiniest Stellar Twins
Web Feature | 2006 December 15
A team of US astronomers has just released the results of a search for low-mass brown dwarf or planetary companions around young early-type M dwarf stars within 20 parsecs of the Sun.
Near Infrared Spectra Constrain an Extraordinary Pair of Cosmic Dwarves
Web Feature | 2006 December 12
An extremely rare stellar system composed of a white dwarf and brown dwarf pair, WD 0137-349 is the only known close, detached binary system with a white dwarf and a confirmed substellar companion.
Gemini North Recovers from Earthquake
Web Feature | 2006 November 13
Distant carbon atoms betray very early enrichment in the young universe
Web Feature | 2006 October 31
Robert A. Simcoe of the MIT has found new evidence of intensive heavy-element enrichment in intergalactic gas, occurring less than 1 billion years (Gyr) after the Big Bang, with the help of GNIRS at Gemini South.
Resolving the Hearts of Luminous Infrared Galaxies
Web Feature | 2006 October 30
An international team of researchers used Gemini mid-infrared images to investigate a sample of nearby Luminous InfraRed Galaxies (LIRGs).
Hawai'i Earthquake Update for Gemini North
Web Feature | 2006 October 16
Hidden Mass Concentration Near the Center of Starbursting Galaxy M83
Web Feature | 2006 October 13
Using CIRPASS at Gemini South, Ruben Diaz and an international team of astronomers have discovered a previously unknown hidden mass concentration that looks like a second nucleus in the starburst galaxy M83.
Understanding The Nature of a Distant Short GRB
Web Feature | 2006 September 29
Alicia M. Soderberg (CALTECH) and her collaborators have studied the GRB 051221a and its afterglow in great detail using several datasets provided by space observations, radio observations with the VLA and optical observations with Gemini.
Stellar birth control at high redshift
Web Feature | 2006 September 20
An international team has found that 45% of a small sample (20) of massive high-redshift galaxies exhibit very low or no star formation activity.
