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Most Distant Object In Universe Loses Its Title | November 29, 2000 Astronomers have determined that a galaxy located in the sky near the Big
Dipper should not be known as the "Most Distant Object." Based on new
observations with different techniques than those used in the original
estimate, the object is closer to Earth than it originally appeared.
The object was first reported in 1999, when a team of scientists used
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to identify a faint galaxy officially called
STIS 123627+621755. However, recent images of the object obtained at the
W.M. Keck Observatory, Mauna Kea, Hawaii, by a team including Dr. Arjun Dey
of NOAO have allowed astronomers to refine the original distance estimate
of 12.5 billion light-years downward to about 10 billion light-years. This
means the object was born about 3.3 billion years after the Big Bang, not
just 600 million years as first thought.
- Link to:
- JPL Press Release
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Ancient Stars in Milky Way Reveal Colorful Epochs of Heavy Element Formation | November 14, 2000 Astronomers studying how elements heavier than iron were produced in the early Milky Way have identified a distinct series of epochs of galaxy-wide chemical formation.
NOAO Press Release: November 14, 2000
- Link to:
- NOAO Press Release
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A Birds Eye View of a Galaxy Collision | November 2, 2000 What appears as a bird's head, leaning over to snatch up a tasty
meal is a striking example of a galaxy collision in NGC 6745.
A large spiral galaxy, with its nucleus still intact, peers at the
smaller passing galaxy (nearly out of the field of view at lower
right), while a bright blue beak and bright whitish-blue top feathers
show the distinct path taken during the smaller galaxy's journey.
These galaxies did not merely interact gravitationally as they
passed one another, they actually collided.
- Link to:
- HST Press Release
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Gemini Cuts Deep Into Galactic Core with First Science Data | October 16, 2000 The first scientific observations from the Gemini North telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii provide a dramatic glimpse into the elusive core of the Milky Way.
The vast extent and extreme clarity of the Gemini infrared images offer tantalizing hints that the center of our galaxy is home to even more exotic objects than once believed, at least one of which Gemini has revealed clearly for the very first time. The object, known by the unglamorous name of IRS8, was only an ill-defined smudge until Gemini came along. Now, the Gemini telescope's advanced optics show that IRS8 appears to be a fast-moving star that is plowing through a poorly understood gas and dust cloud near the galactic center. Passing through the cloud, the star creates a very obvious bow-shock wave, similar to the wave that forms in front of a boat as it goes through water.
NOAO is the gateway for U.S. scientists to participate in the International Gemini Project.
- Link to:
- Gemini Press Release
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Kitt Peak's new universe | September 17, 2000 The future of Kitt Peak National Observatory involves effective partnerships with space missions and giant new ground-based telescopes, along with helping coordinate a national system of universities and
independent observatories that can respond to the latest astronomical
discoveries, according to a pair of articles in the Arizona Daily Star.
- Link to:
- Kitt Peak's new universe
- Closed telescope will gaze spaceward again
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NOAO Astronomers Take Census of Elusive Brown Dwarf Stars with HST | August 24, 2000 Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have carried out the most complete inventory to date of brown dwarfs, one of the universe's most elusive types of objects, which dwell in limbo between stars and planets. The Hubble census provides new and compelling evidence that stars and planets form in different ways.
- Link to:
- HST Press Release
- Arizona Daily Star article
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Astrophysicists Detect Cosmic Shear, Evidence of Dark Matter | May 11, 2000 Kitt Peak astronomer Ian Dell'Antonio and colleagues have studied the
light from 145,000 distant galaxies and discovered a cosmological shear,
an effect predicted by Einstein's theory of relativity. This discovery
enables a comparison of the dark matter distribution in the early universe
with that in the current universe, and provides a powerful tool to test
current predictions of the ultimate fate of the universe.
- Link to:
- NSF Press Release
- Lucent Technologies/Bell Labs Press Release
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The Beat Goes On - Inside The Sun | March 30, 2000 Astronomers from the National Science Foundation's National Solar Observatory
are announcing in today's issue of Science that their discovery of
periodically varying gas motions below the solar surface provides an
important clue toward solving the biggest secret of the Sun - the origin
of the 11-year cycle of solar activity. more...
NOAO Press Release: March 30, 2000
Download: Text | PDF | Images
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8.1-Meter Mirror Crosses Oceans to Reach Gemini Telescope | March 20, 2000 After traveling in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, through the Panama
Canal and up a steep, narrow mountain road to a remote peak in Chile,
one of the world's largest astronomical telescope mirrors arrived safely
at the Gemini South Observatory on March 17th, 2000. more...
NOAO Press Release: March 20, 2000
Download: Text | PDF | Images
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Kitt Peak's Mayall 4-meter Telescope Used in Identifying Quasar as the Most Distant Object in the Universe | February 18, 2000 The National Science Foundation's Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak
has been used by astronomers to help identify the most distant object in the universe.
- Link to:
- JPL Press Release
- Images
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CTIO 4-meter Telescope Identifies Coolest Brown Dwarf | January 15, 2000 The Blanco 4-meter telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO)
has been used by astronomers at Cal Tech to conclusively identify the
lowest-temperature object yet discovered outside our solar system.
- Link to:
- Cal Tech Press Release
- The journal article preprint of this work
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Students Help Astronomers Discover 73 Novae in Andromeda Galaxy | January 13, 2000
Astronomers, high school teachers and their students have discovered 73
novae in the Andromeda galaxy through a National Science Foundation
(NSF) funded education program called "The Use of Astronomy in Research
Based Science Education" (RBSE).
more...
NOAO Press Release: January 13, 2000
Download: Text | PDF | Images
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