November 22–23, 2021
Professor Raja GuhaThakurta and his research team use the NIRC2 instrument on the Keck II 10-meter telescope located on Maunakea, Hawai`i to create ultra sharp images in near infrared light of families of stars. These stellar families, also known as star clusters, are located of 2.5 million light years away in the Andromeda galaxy.
The team employ a technique called “adaptive optics” to compensate in real-time for the twinkling of stars caused by turbulence in the Earth’s atmosphere.
September 12–13, 2021
Professor Raja GuhaThakurta along with his collaborators Amanda Quirk and Karrie Gilbert use the DEIMOS spectrograph on the Keck II 10-meter telescope located on Maunakea, Hawai`i to obtain spectra of red giant branch stars that are part of the disk and halo of the Triangulum galaxy. Also known as Messier 33 or M33, this galaxy is located 2.7 million light years from Earth. The goal of the research team is to compare the overall rotation speed of the disk of stars to that of the hydrogen gas, the latter being the raw material from which stars form in a galaxy.
During the course of this research project, Raja and the team discovered two mysteries: (1) a population of “halo” stars on swarming orbits located in the inner region of M33 and (2) a population of “weak CN” stars with unusual surface chemistry. The spectra from this observing session will be used in conjunction with previous DEIMOS spectra of M33 stars collected in 2016, 2018, 2019, and 2020.
September 2–3, 2021
Professor Raja GuhaThakurta and his research team use the Keck II 10-meter telescope and ESI spectrograph on Maunakea, Hawai`i to obtain spectra of the most distant RR Lyrae stars to date, located roughly 300–350 thousand light years from us.
RR Lyrae stars undergo periodic pulsations on the time scale of 12 to 18 hours during which their brightness and surface temperature change quite dramatically. These variable stars can be found in the Milky Way’s halo, a spherical cloud of stars surrounding our galaxy which is thought to be the result of cannibalism of many smaller galaxies.
This segment features a discussion of the guider camera and mirror alignment process.
(Video editing credits: Sam King II and the ‘Ohana Kilo Hōkū team)
September 2–3, 2021
Professor Raja GuhaThakurta and his research team use the Keck II 10-meter telescope and ESI spectrograph on Maunakea, Hawai`i to obtain spectra of the most distant RR Lyrae stars to date, located roughly 300–350 thousand light years from us.
RR Lyrae stars undergo periodic pulsations on the time scale of 12 to 18 hours during which their brightness and surface temperature change quite dramatically. These variable stars can be found in the Milky Way’s halo, a spherical cloud of stars surrounding our galaxy which is thought to be the result of cannibalism of many smaller galaxies.
This segment features a discussion about taking image exposures.
(Video editing credits: Sam King II and the ‘Ohana Kilo Hōkū team)
September 2–3, 2021
Professor Raja GuhaThakurta and his research team use the Keck II 10-meter telescope and ESI spectrograph on Maunakea, Hawai`i to obtain spectra of the most distant RR Lyrae stars to date, located roughly 300–350 thousand light years from us.
RR Lyrae stars undergo periodic pulsations on the time scale of 12 to 18 hours during which their brightness and surface temperature change quite dramatically. These variable stars can be found in the Milky Way’s halo, a spherical cloud of stars surrounding our galaxy which is thought to be the result of cannibalism of many smaller galaxies.
This segment features a discussion of why astronomers are able to get such close-up images of distant objects using ground based telescopes.
(Video editing credits: Sam King II and the ‘Ohana Kilo Hōkū team)
September 2–3, 2021
Professor Raja GuhaThakurta and his research team use the Keck II 10-meter telescope and ESI spectrograph on Maunakea, Hawai`i to obtain spectra of the most distant RR Lyrae stars to date, located roughly 300–350 thousand light years from us.
RR Lyrae stars undergo periodic pulsations on the time scale of 12 to 18 hours during which their brightness and surface temperature change quite dramatically. These variable stars can be found in the Milky Way’s halo, a spherical cloud of stars surrounding our galaxy which is thought to be the result of cannibalism of many smaller galaxies.
This segment features a discussion of light years, a unit used to measure stellar distances.
(Video editing credits: Sam King II and the ‘Ohana Kilo Hōkū team)
September 2–3, 2021
Professor Raja GuhaThakurta and his research team use the Keck II 10-meter telescope and ESI spectrograph on Maunakea, Hawai`i to obtain spectra of the most distant RR Lyrae stars to date, located roughly 300–350 thousand light years from us.
RR Lyrae stars undergo periodic pulsations on the time scale of 12 to 18 hours during which their brightness and surface temperature change quite dramatically. These variable stars can be found in the Milky Way’s halo, a spherical cloud of stars surrounding our galaxy which is thought to be the result of cannibalism of many smaller galaxies.
This segment features a discussion on taking the spectrum of a star.
(Video editing credits: Sam King II and the ‘Ohana Kilo Hōkū team)
September 2–3, 2021
Professor Raja GuhaThakurta and his research team use the Keck II 10-meter telescope and ESI spectrograph on Maunakea, Hawai`i to obtain spectra of the most distant RR Lyrae stars to date, located roughly 300–350 thousand light years from us.
RR Lyrae stars undergo periodic pulsations on the time scale of 12 to 18 hours during which their brightness and surface temperature change quite dramatically. These variable stars can be found in the Milky Way’s halo, a spherical cloud of stars surrounding our galaxy which is thought to be the result of cannibalism of many smaller galaxies.
This segment features a discussion of the first image of the night’s observing session.
(Video editing credits: Sam King II and the ‘Ohana Kilo Hōkū team)
September 2–3, 2021
Professor Raja GuhaThakurta and his research team use the Keck II 10-meter telescope and ESI spectrograph on Maunakea, Hawai`i to obtain spectra of the most distant RR Lyrae stars to date, located roughly 300–350 thousand light years from us.
RR Lyrae stars undergo periodic pulsations on the time scale of 12 to 18 hours during which their brightness and surface temperature change quite dramatically. These variable stars can be found in the halo, a spherical cloud of stars thought to be the result of cannibalism of many smaller galaxies, that surrounds our Milky Way. This segment features a discussion of the Pan-STARRS survey.
(Video editing credits: Sam King II and the ‘Ohana Kilo Hōkū team)
September 2–3, 2021
Professor Raja GuhaThakurta and his research team use the Keck II 10-meter telescope and ESI spectrograph on Maunakea, Hawai`i to obtain spectra of the most distant RR Lyrae stars to date, located roughly 300–350 thousand light years from us.
RR Lyrae stars undergo periodic pulsations on the time scale of 12 to 18 hours during which their brightness and surface temperature change quite dramatically. These variable stars can be found in the halo, a spherical cloud of stars thought to be the result of cannibalism of many smaller galaxies, that surrounds our Milky Way.
(Video editing credits: Sam King II and the ‘Ohana Kilo Hōkū team)