Gemini News Archive
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.
Nightly Base Facility Operations at Gemini North!
Web Feature | 2016 January 21
Base Facility Operations (BFO) are now fully implemented for the Gemini North telescope. All operations are now routinely conducted each night from the Hilo Base Facility.
Gemini Helps Confirm Dark “Noodles” in Milky Way
Press Release | 2016 January 21
Clumps of gas shaped like noodles could be floating around in our Galaxy, radically challenging our understanding of gas conditions in the Milky Way.
Gap in Dusty Disk is Likely Embryonic Sub-Jupiter Mass Planet
Web Feature | 2015 December 22
At just 180 light years from Earth and a ripe young age of roughly 8 million years, this nearly solar-mass star and its orbiting, circumstellar disk of dust and gas are prime targets to better understand the processes involved in star and planet formation
Gemini and Keck Put New Spin on Galaxy Formation
Web Feature | 2015 December 14
A team of Australian researchers used two Maunakea-based observatories – Gemini North and W. M. Keck Observatory – to discover why some galaxies are clumpy rather than spiral in shape and it appears that low spin is to blame.
Gemini Featured at Extreme Solar Systems III Conference
Web Feature | 2015 November 30
Observations using the Gemini Planet Imager are featured prominently at the Extreme Solar Systems III meeting which occurred Nov. 29 - December 4 2015 in Waikoloa Hawai‘i. Below are two results from a press conference on December 1, 2015.
Gemini Characterizes Cheshire Cat
Web Feature | 2015 November 23
Gemini observations provide a key scientific context for a striking new image of the gravitationally lensed galaxy group popularly known as the Cheshire Cat. Gemini played a critical role in the image’s scientific story by taking the spectral fingerprints of many of the galaxies that make up the foreground cluster which bends the distant galactic light
Illumination of the Early Universe by Quasars: Korea's 1st Result as Limited Gemini Partner
Web Feature | 2015 November 10
A team of Korean astronomers discovered a faint quasar in the early Universe which sheds light on the main sources of illumination about 1 billion years after the Big Bang.
Back on the Sky at Gemini South
Web Feature | 2015 November 2
After 18 days of hard work during the recent scheduled maintenance shutdown, the Gemini South telescope is back on the sky! During maintenance, which took place October 13th - 30th, the 8.1-meter primary mirror received a fresh multi-layer protected silver coating - a key task for the shutdown.
Time Delay in Lensed Quasar: First Fast Turnaround Result
Web Feature | 2015 October 29
A team of Norwegian and US astronomers, using data from Gemini North and the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT), have measured the time delay in images of a quasar lensed by a foreground cluster of galaxies
Gemini Launches Local Students on an Exciting Week-long Viaje al Universo
Web Feature | 2015 October 22
Gemini Observatory kicked off its week-long program Viaje al Universo with an opening ceremony at the University of La Serena. The annual program is an immersive week of fun, hands-on learning focusing on local students and teachers.
Mysterious Starburst Unshrouded in Nearby Galaxy
Web Feature | 2015 October 21
The nearest spiral galaxy with a nuclear starburst (greatly enhanced star formation near a galaxy’s center) is also the site of a long-standing astronomical mystery. The core of this galaxy is so shrouded by gas and dust that the exact location of its core has remained unresolved for years.
The Deepest Ground-based Photometry in a Crowded Field
Web Feature | 2015 September 30
Expecting to resolve stars deep into the crowded field of a globular cluster is a tall order for ground-based telescopes. However, Paolo Turri (University of Victoria, Canada) and colleagues have used the Gemini Multi-conjugate adaptive optics System (GeMS) with the Gemini South Adaptive Optics Imager (GSAOI) to do just that.
Searching for Orphan Stars Amid Starbirth Fireworks
Press Release | 2015 September 25
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.
Watching an Exoplanet in Motion Around a Distant Star
Press Release | 2015 September 14
A team of astronomers has given us our best view yet of an exoplanet moving in its orbit around a distant star.
Gemini Installs Record-Breaking Rooftop PV Solar Panel System
Press Release | 2015 September 10
Continuing Gemini Observatory’s commitment to the positive stewardship of our planet, Gemini leads in the use of renewable energy sources on Maunakea.
Gemini-Discovered World is Most Like Jupiter
Press Release | 2015 August 13
Going beyond the discovery and imaging of a young Jupiter, astronomers using the Gemini Observatory's new Planet Imager (GPI) have probed a newly discovered world in unprecedented detail.
Gemini Studies a Plethora of Brown Dwarfs Candidates
Web Feature | 2015 July 23
An international team of astronomers recently discovered 42 new brown dwarfs using data from the near-infrared imager and spectrograph Flamingos-2 at Gemini South and other telescopes in Chile and Hawai’i.
