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Gemini News Archive

Massive Cluster Galaxies Move in Unexpected Ways

Astronomers using data from GMOS-North and GMOS-South) measured the motions of stars within a sample of BCGs and found the stellar motions inconsistent with these galaxies’ solitary cousins.

What Do Uranus’s Cloud Tops Have in Common With Rotten Eggs?

Based on sensitive spectroscopic observations with the Gemini North telescope, astronomers uncovered the noxious gas swirling high in Uranus’s cloud tops.

Dark Matter is a No Show in Ghostly Galaxy

Astronomers using data from the Gemini and W. M. Keck Observatories in Hawai‘i have encountered a galaxy that appears to have almost no dark matter. “...This is a game changer,” according to Principal Investigator Pieter van Dokkum of Yale University.

Shining Light on Dim Galactic Neighbors

The researchers exposed the identities of three ultra-faint dwarf galaxy candidates using the Gemini South telescope. They reports that the objects appear to be loose clusters of stars, not dwarf galaxies as some had previously believed.

Game Over for Supernovae Hide & Seek

A research team, using the Gemini South telescope, concludes that the majority of core collapse supernovae, exploding in luminous infrared galaxies, have previously not been found due to dust obscuration and poor spatial resolution.

The Birth of Massive Stars Around an Unlikely Galaxy

Using the Gemini South telescope, researchers extracted spectra from extremely faint optical sources which they determined are nurseries of massive stars around an elliptical galaxy.

Supermassive Black Hole is Ahead of its Time

Observations reveal the mass of earliest known supermassive black hole which radiates from an era in the universe only 690 million years after the Big Bang. Researchers, using unique spectroscopic data from Gemini Near-Infrared Spectrograph (GNIRS) on Gemini North determined its mass at a whopping 800 million times the mass of our Sun.

Supermassive Black Hole is Ahead of its Time

Gemini Observations Show Distant Black Hole Pair is “Photobombing” Culprit

Gemini observations played a critical role inidentifing an object which appears to be “photobombing” the Andromeda Galaxy. Rather than being a binary star system within the neighboring Andromeda Galaxy, the object is really a distant galaxy containing a supermassive black hole binary.

First Known Interstellar Visitor is an “Oddball”

After the object was discovered by Pan-STARRS1 on Haleakala, both Gemini telescopes observed ‘Oumuamua for three nights as it quickly dimmed from view. Researchers found that despite its interstellar origin, the object is similar in composition to some objects in our Solar System but its shape is unlike anything found around our Sun.

First Known Interstellar Visitor is an “Oddball”

Gemini Observatory Confirms Spiral Nature of Extremely Distant Lensed Galaxy

Gemini North’s NIFS has confirmed the spiral nature of the most distant known spiral galaxy (A1689B11) by far through gravitational lensing.

Gemini Observatory Confirms Spiral Nature of Extremely Distant Lensed Galaxy

Astronomers Feast on First Light From Gravitational Wave Event

Gemini Observatory "pulled all of the stops" to bring a gravitational wave source into focus and capture early optical and infrared light from the merger of two neutron stars.

Astronomers Feast on First Light From Gravitational Wave Event

The Galactic Center’s Mysterious Quintuplet Stars Unmasked

Gemini astronomer Tom Geballe describes his recent infrared spectroscopic observations of a mysterious quintuplet of stars. Each of these stars is embedded in its own cocoon of dust in a cluster of massive stars near the center of the Milky Way.

The Galactic Center’s Mysterious Quintuplet Stars Unmasked

Rocky Planet Engulfment Explains Stellar Odd Couple

Astronomers using the Gemini Observatory and the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope have discovered remarkable differences in the abundance of heavier elements and the Lithium content in a binary star pair.

Rocky Planet Engulfment Explains Stellar Odd Couple

The Little Star That Survived a Supernova

GRACES observes a fast-moving object that is likely a white dwarf star expelled from a supernova explosion and sent hurtling through our galactic neighborhood.

The Little Star That Survived a Supernova

Gemini Confirms a New Class of Variable Stars

Gemini confirms a new class of variable stars called Blue Large-Amplitude Pulsators. They are significantly bluer than main sequence stars of the same luminosity demonstrating that they are relatively hot.

Gemini Confirms Super-distant, Superluminous Supernova

Spectroscopy using the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph on the Gemini South telescope in Chile verifies the extreme distance of one of the most distant superluminous supernovae ever studied.

Gemini spectra overlaid on image of supernova with title text, Gemini Confirms Super-distant, Superluminous Supernova"

Striking Gemini Images Point Juno Spacecraft Toward Discovery

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.

Korean Astronomers Dissect a Fragmented Asteroid

A team of Korean astronomers uses imaging from GMOS on Gemini North to characterize the rotation of active asteroid P/2010 A2’s largest fragment. The observations show that this faint and tiny asteroid, which underwent a mass ejection episode, is slowly rotating.

A Partly-cloudy Exoplanet

The first exoplanet discovered using the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) is a young, cool object between 2–10 Jupiter masses. Research hints that the formation of this exoplanet is likely due to the collapse of icy disk materials followed by the accretion of a thick gas atmosphere.

A Partly-cloudy Exoplanet

Gemini Observatory Astronomer Meg Schwamb to be Awarded Sagan Medal

Gemini Observatory astronomer Meg Schwamb is this year’s recipient of the Carl Sagan Medal for Excellence in Public Communication in Planetary Science. Schwamb is being honored for the creation and development of new tools and venues to facilitate planetary science communication.

Gemini Observatory Astronomer Meg Schwamb to be Awarded Sagan Medal

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