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Nobel Laureate Brian Schmidt to Speak at UH Manoa
Nobel laureate Brian Schmidt will speak on “The Accelerating Universe,” on Thursday, June 7 at 7:30 p.m. at Kennedy Theatre on the University of Hawaii at Manoa campus. The talk is free, but tickets are required.
IfA to Provide Safe Venus Transit Viewing Venues
On June 5, from noon until dusk, the Institute for Astronomy of the University of Hawaii at Manoa will provide facilities for the public to safely view the transit of Venus—Venus crossing the disk of the sun—at Waikiki Beach, at the Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor, and at Ko Olina Resort near Lagoon 4.
Earth’s Other Moons
Earth usually has more than one moon, according to a team of astronomers from the University of Helsinki, the Paris Observatory and the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.
Space Observations of Mercury Transits Yield Precise Solar Radius
A group of scientists from Hawaii, Brazil and California has measured the diameter of the Sun with unprecedented accuracy by using a spacecraft to time the transits of the planet Mercury across the face of the Sun in 2003 and 2006.
UH Astronomer Receives Humboldt Fellowship
Dr. Nader Haghighipour, an associate astronomer at the IfA, has received a Humboldt Research Fellowship for Experienced Researchers to work on planets in binary star systems. As part of that award, he will spend 2013 in Germany at the Max Planck Insti tute for Astronomy in Heidelberg and the University of Tuebingen.
Potentially habitable planet found orbiting nearby star
An international team of scientists that includes University of Hawaii at Manoa astronomer Nader Haghighipour has discovered a potentially habitable super-Earth planet orbiting a nearby star. This discovery demonstrates that habitable planets could f orm in a greater variety of environments than previously believed.
The Mauna Kea Observatory:
Input to the NSF Portfolio Review, January 2012
Mauna Kea is a tremendous asset to the US astronomical community. Building on this investment in the next decade is critical to retaining a competitive US position in ground-based astronomy.
RECENT IfA gradUATE finds “cool” gas may form and strengthen sunspots
Hydrogen molecules may act as a kind of energy sink that strengthens the magnetic grip that causes sunspots, according to scientists from Hawaii and New Mexico.
“We think that molecular hydrogen plays an important role in the formation and evolution of sunspots,” said Dr. Sarah Jaeggli, a recent UH Manoa/IfA graduate whose doctoral research formed a key element of the new findings. She conducted the research with Drs. Haosheng Lin, also from the UH Manoa/'IfA, and Han Uitenbroek of the National Solar Observatory (NSO) in Sunspot, New Mexico.
They used the new Facility Infrared Spectropolarimeter (FIRS) designed by Lin and built at IfA, as well as the older the older Horizontal Spectrograph, on the Dunn Solar Telescope at Sunspot, New Mexico.
Rare Transit of Venus Visible from Hawai‘i June 5
On the afternoon and evening of June 5, people in Hawai‘i will have the rare opportunity to view the planet Venus cross the disk of the sun. This is the last time this will happen in our lifetimes: The next transit of Venus will occur in 2117. < /p>
UH Astronomers, at the Right Place at the Right Time, Aid Significant Supernova Study
Observing a “once-in-a-generation” supernova visible for just 10 minutes became the challenge for University of Hawaii astronomers Alan Stockton and Hsin-Yi Shihin August 2011.
Micrometeorite struck grain of Moon Sand
IfA Research Affiliate Gary Greenberg reexamined a sample brought back by Apollo 11 and found something interesting.
See Scientific American article
UH Astronomer Finds Planet in the Process of Forming
The first direct image of a planet in the process of forming around its star has been captured by University of Hawaii astronomer Adam Kraus.
Mauna Kea, IfA Played Key Roles in Nobel Research
One of the most dramatic scientific discoveries of the last thirty years was the finding that the Universe is expanding at an ever-increasing rate and will therefore last forever. This discovery, announced in 1998, has led to the 2011 Nobel Prize in p hysics, awarded on Tuesday to the leaders of two large groups of astronomers. And it would not have happened without the observatories on Mauna Kea, a camera designed and built at the IfA, and the pioneering work of IfA astronomer John Tonry, a member of one of those teams.
Pan-STARRS Telescope Finds New Distant Comet
Astronomers at the University of Hawaii at Manoa have discovered a new comet that they expect will be visible to the naked eye in early 2013.