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Join us Friday, Oct. 7, 2016 for the IfA Maui Open House
The annual IfA Maui Open House will be held Friday, Oct. 7, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Maikalani building in Pukalani, Maui. Free Admission. Flier
- Look Through a Telescope
- Lab Tours
- Science Demonstrations
- Bottle Rockets
- Infrared Camera
September 15, 2016: Hubble Takes Close-up Look at Disintegrating Comet
Comet 332P/Ikeya-Murakami survived for 4.5 billion years in the frigid Kuiper Belt, a vast reservoir of icy bodies on the outskirts of our solar system. But within the last few million years, the unlucky comet was gravitationally kicked to the inner solar system by the outer planets - and this new home, closer to the sun, has doomed the comet. The Hubble Space Telescope caught the latest cloud of debris ejected by Comet 332P. The images, taken over three days in January 2016, represent one of the sharpest, most detailed observations of a comet breaking apart. The doomed comet may disintegrate in only 150 years.
August 3, 2016: Planets With the Highest Likelihood of Harboring Life Identified
A team of astronomers known as the Kepler Habitable Zone Working Group, including University of Hawai'i Institute for Astronomy astronomer Nader Haghighipour, has identified which of the more than 4,000 exoplanets discovered by the NASA Kepler mission are most likely to be similar to our rocky home.
July 27, 2016: Jupiter's Great Red Spot Heats Planet's Upper Atmosphere
Researchers from Boston University's (BU) Center for Space Physics, using data from the Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) on Maunakea, Hawaii, report today in Nature that Jupiter's Great Red Spot may provide the mysterious source of energy required to heat the planet's upper atmosphere to the unusually high temperatures observed.
July 18, 2016: Hawaii Astronomers and Telescopes Haul in One Hundred New Planets
An international team of astronomers has discovered more than 100 new extrasolar planets using data from the Kepler Space Telescope. The planets were confirmed and characterized by a suite of ground-based telescopes, including four telescopes on Maunakea. Six astronomers from the University of Hawaii (UH) contributed to the international team of 44 scientists from seven countries.
July 13, 2016: Stellar Outburst Brings Water Snowline into View
A violent outburst by the young star V883 Orionis has given astronomers their first view of a water "snowline" in a protoplanetary disk - the transition point around the star where the temperature and pressure are low enough for water ice to form. The team making this discovery was led by Lucas Cieza, a former Sagan Fellow at IfA, and includes IfA astronomer Jonatham Williams.
July 8, 2016: UH-led Team Uses Dawn Mission To Identify Icy Craters on Ceres
Might the dwarf planet Ceres have permanent ice deposits? Using NASA's Dawn mission, a team led by Norbert Schorghofer, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy, has identified permanently shadowed regions on the dwarf planet Ceres. Most of these areas likely have been cold enough to trap water ice for a billion years, suggesting that ice deposits could exist there now.
June 16, 2016: Newly discovered asteroid is Earth's companion
Astronomers at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa's Institute for Astronomy discovered a small asteroid that has been in an orbit around the sun that keeps it as a constant companion of Earth. The asteroid, designated 2016 HO3, was detected in April by the Pan-STARRS telescope on Haleakala, and subsequent research into Pan-STARRS archives revealed faint images of it as far back as 2011.
June 13, 2016: Largest, Widest Orbit "Tatooine" Bolsters Planet Formation Theories
A team of astronomers, including University of Hawaii astronomer Nader Haghighipour, will announce on June 13 the discovery of an unusual new transiting circumbinary planet (orbiting two suns). This planet, detected using the Kepler spacecraft, is unusual because it is both the largest such planet found to date, and has the widest orbit.
May 25, 2016: Are Black Holes the Dark Matter?
A recent publication suggests that black holes, like the ones discovered by LIGO, are the mysterious dark matter. Have these left their imprint on the diffuse X-ray and inrared background radiation of the Universe? A team lead by UH researchers aims to find out.
Back from the Deep Freeze: A Piece of the Early Solar System Returns
Astronomers have found a unique object that appears to be made of inner Solar System material from the time of Earth's formation, which has been preserved in the Oort Cloud for billions of years. Originally identified by the University of Hawaii's Pan-STARRS1 telescope, C/2014 S3 (PANSTARRS) is a weakly active comet a little over twice as far from the Sun as the Earth. Its current long orbital period (around 860 years) suggests that its source is in the Oort Cloud, and it was nudged comparatively recently into an orbit that brings it closer to the Sun.
IfA Manoa Open House April 17th
Join us at our Manoa Headquarters on April 17th, 11am-4p, from for a day of family-friendly activities and talks!
Free admission and free parking
In memoriam: Gerry Luppino
We grieve the untimely death of former IfA astronomer Gerard Anthony "Gerry" Luppino. A memorial service will be held on April 2. Read Dr. Hasinger's tribute to Gerry.
Mystery of Disappearing Asteroids Solved
Ever since it was realized that asteroid and comet impacts are a real and present danger to the survival of life on Earth, it was thought that most of those objects end their existence in a dramatic final plunge into the Sun. A new study published on Thursday in the journal Nature finds instead that most of those objects are destroyed in a drawn out, long hot fizzle, much farther from the Sun than previously thought. This surprising new discovery explains several puzzling observations that have been reported in recent years.
Pan-STARRS Chases Source of LIGO Gravity Wave Event
The email came in the night on Sept 15. A significant event had happened at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory, or LIGO, during their engineering run. A ripple in spacetime had occurred somewhere in the universe. But where? LIGO had not yet started their formal observing run, and with only two Gravity Wave detectors, they could not pinpoint where in the sky, amongst billions and billions of galaxies, the source of this disturbance had occurred.
If "sparks" fly when black holes merge then a new point of light will be seen in the sky. Pan-STARRS, with its powerful surveying capability, can rapidly map the region of the sky identified by LIGO, compare it to the previous map, and find anything that has changed.
Press Release
UH Researchers Shed New Light on the Origins of Earth’s Water
Water covers more than two-thirds of Earth’s surface, but its exact origins are still something of a mystery. Scientists have long been uncertain whether water was present at the formation of the planet, or if it arrived later, perhaps carried by comets and meteorites. Now researchers from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, using advanced ion-microprobe instrumentation, have found evidence that Earth’s water was a part of our planet from the beginning.
Main-Belt Asteroid Shows Evidence of March Collision
The main-belt asteroid (493) Griseldis was probably hit by another object last March. The results were reported on November 12 at the annual meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society near Washington, DC.
Maunakea Observatories and ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center to give free observatory tours to Hawai‘i residents
The Kama‘āina Observatory Experience, presented by Maunakea Observatories and ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center, is a free monthly community event that seeks to inspire a passion for astronomy and an appreciation for the cultural and environmental future of Maunakea among Hawai‘i residents. It will launch in early 2016. Participation is free and open to all Hawai‘i residents. Tours will be open once a month to individuals 16 and older with a valid Hawai‘i ID. Registration is required and will be available via this website on a first come, first served basis.