Gemini News Archive
Volcanoes on Io: Long-term Tracking with Adaptive Optics
Web Feature | 2016 October 20
Jupiter’s moon Io is the most volcanically active world in our Solar System. Now, the longest series of frequent high-resolution tracking of Io’s thermal emission is providing insights on Io’s volcanoes thanks to a powerful joint observation program between the Gemini North telescope (with NIRI+Altair instrument) and the W.M. Keck Observatory.
Cluster’s Advanced Age in Razor-sharp Focus
Press Release | 2016 October 12
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.
Mysterious “Blobs” Can be Closer Than We Thought
Web Feature | 2016 September 20
Astronomers studying a mysterious phenomenon known as Lyman-alpha blobs (LABs) have discovered several of these high-energy objects in galaxies that are much closer than previously known. The discovery is significant because these closer specimens are much easier to study, and because they live at a time when the Universe was much older and more mature, allowing astronomers to study their evolution with cosmic time
Gemini Images Galaxy That Is 99.99 Percent Dark Matter
Press Release | 2016 August 24
Using the W. M. Keck Observatory and the Gemini North telescope – both on Maunakea, Hawai‘i – astronomers found a galaxy whose mass is almost entirely Dark Matter.
Could Gravitational Wave Events Flash in Visible Light?
Web Feature | 2016 August 16
Gemini explores the possibility of short-lived optical emission (visible light) from the violent events that produce gravitational waves.
Gemini Tracks Collapse of Io's Atmosphere During Frigid Eclipses
Press Release | 2016 August 1
Gemini observations show that the thin atmosphere of Jupiter's moon Io undergoes dramatic changes during frequent eclipses with the giant planet.
Gemini Observatory Instrumental in Exoplanet Harvest
Press Release | 2016 July 18
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 Earth-like exoplanets.
Exploring a Frozen Extrasolar World
Press Release | 2016 July 6
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.
Innovative Gemini/CFHT Partnership Explores a Hot Jupiter
Web Feature | 2016 June 19
The novel collaboration between the Gemini Observatory and Canada-France-Hawai‘i Telescope (CFHT) called GRACES (Gemini Remote Access to CFHT ESPaDOnS Spectrograph), helped to characterize a “hot Jupiter” around the T-Tauri star V830 Tau.
Ultra-sharp Image Uncovers the Shocking Lives of Young Stars
Press Release | 2016 June 17
The world’s most advanced adaptive optics system reveals “shocking” details on star formation in a new image released by the Gemini Observatory probing a swarm of young and forming stars that appear to have been shocked into existence.
Resolving an Exoplanet’s Motion to Constrain a Young Planetary System
Web Feature | 2016 May 24
Using the Gemini Planet Imager astronomers have successfully monitored the motion of a planet around the forming exoplanet system orbiting the star HD 95086 and suggest that more unseen planets are present.
Helium’s Role in the Pulsation of Early White Dwarfs
Web Feature | 2016 May 11
Before low-medium mass stars become white dwarfs they pulsate wildly and eventually spew their outer layers into space – often forming beautiful planetary nebulae. The same stars are predicted to continue pulsating during their transformation to a white dwarf, if they have helium in their atmospheres.
Gemini Identifies Free-floating Jupiter Analogue
Web Feature | 2016 April 5
Using the FLAMINGOS-2 spectrometer/imager at Gemini South, astronomers have characterized an especially young, free-floating analogue to Jupiter in our neighborhood (92 light years away).
Lonely Black Hole Relic Shines Light on Young Universe
Press Release | 2016 April 5
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.
Celebrating 12 Years of Journey Through the Universe (and Counting!)
Web Feature | 2016 March 22
During the week of March 7-11, 83 observatory professionals consisting of astronomers, engineers, astronomy educators, and other observatory staff brought their passion for science into hundreds of local Hawai'i Island classrooms as a part of Gemini Observatoryʻs flagship annual outreach program, Journey Through the Universe.
The Fastest Quasar Ultraviolet Wind
Web Feature | 2016 March 21
Observations using the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrographs (GMOS) on both Gemini North and South telescopes have revealed the fastest ultraviolet wind ever measured in a quasar.
Supermassive Black Hole - That Wasn't
Web Feature | 2016 February 29
Research shows that supermassive black holes like to be the only residents on the block, as stars too close to them end up being thrown vast distances from the galaxy's center.
Are the Coolest Brown Dwarfs Loners?
Web Feature | 2016 February 18
Astronomers use Gemini’s high-resolution multi-conjugate adaptive optics system to look for elusive companions to the lowest mass brown dwarfs.
Gemini Confirms a Free-Floating Planet
Web Feature | 2016 February 10
An extremely red planetary-mass object is confirmed, based on Gemini observations, to be a free-floating member of the Beta Pictoris moving group. This is one of only a handful of directly imaged planets available for spectroscopy – allowing scientists to probe the world’s physical characteristics.
NSF Selects AURA to Continue Managing Gemini
Press Release | 2016 February 5
The National Science Board (NSB) and the international Gemini Board have authorized the NSF to award a new 6-year, $208 million cooperative agreement to the AURA for the management and operation of the Gemini Observatory.
