Astronomy

The Perseid meteor shower decorates the night sky every summer. This year, the most activity happens overnight Aug. 12.

The astronomical event known as Lāhainā Noon happens when the sun passes directly overhead of locations in the tropics, which includes Hawai‘i, and causes upright and smooth-sided objects to be “shadowless.”

There’s a dead star out there in the universe that is double-dealing with its composition. Nothing nefarious, but it is a first for the cosmic family of stars to which it belongs.

In a groundbreaking study, a team of astronomers — with the help of the Subaru Telescope atop Maunakea on the Big Island — has discovered an ancient star bearing a unique chemical makeup unlike anything ever before observed in the Milky Way galaxy.

Maunakea’s unique geography, geology and atmospheric conditions make the Big Island’s tallest volcanic mountain a premiere place in the world for astronomy research.

After twelve years of planning, the European Space Agency on July 1 launched its Euclid satellite from Cape Canaveral, Fla., with the goal of answering those and many other questions, and it will get a big — and colorful — helping hand from three observatories in Hawai‘i, including two on the Big Island.

The new Maunakea Stewardship and Oversight Authority board, during the next five years, is tasked with creating a new master plan for Maunakea on the Big Island and making sure that plan balances culture and environment with astronomy and economic benefits.

Astronomers from the University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy have made the remarkable discovery of a planet’s survival after what should have been certain demise at the hands of its sun.

An international team of scientists, including staff astronomer Chien-Hsiu Lee at W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, has captured first time images of starlight from two massive galaxies hosting actively growing black holes from less than a billion years after the Big Bang.

For the past several years, with NASA support, astronomers at the UH Institute for Astronomy and industry partners have been maturing the new tech that will be used for a mission to identify and classify about 25 Earth-like exoplanets.

With the help of an observatory atop Maunakea on the Big Island, a team of astronomers were able to capture a bizarre quadruple image of the supernova dubbed “SN Zwicky.”

The images feature a variety of sunspots and quiet regions of the Sun obtained by the Visible-Broadband Imager, one of the telescope’s first-generation instruments.

With the help of the W. M. Keck Observatory atop Maunakea on the Big Island, astronomers for the first time have observed direct evidence for a scenario they already knew happens throughout the universe — an aging star engulfing planets on inner orbits around it.

Scientists used artificial intelligence to analyze the chemical abundances of old stars seen by a telescope on Maunakea and found indications that the very first stars in the universe were born in groups rather than as isolated single stars.

After a 37-year career, Hilton Lewis is stepping down from his position as the director of the W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea.

The planned facility by the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics that would listen for fast radio bursts recently got a boost, receiving a favorable recommendation from Hawai‘i County Windward Planning Commission for a special use permit.

The Hawaiʻi Board of Land and Natural Resources approved the plan submitted by the university’s Center for Maunakea Stewardship for the decommissioning of the UH Hilo Hōkū Kea Observatory.

The goal of early notification, before dates are fixed, is to seek feedback on potential conflicts with other activities.

“What this discovery gives is an insight into the dynamic, often violent early histories of galaxies,” a Keck Observatory scientist said.

Researchers have speculated about what ‘Oumuamua is since the reddish cigar-shaped galactic guest was first observed nearly six years ago by the Pan-STARRS1 telescope atop Haleakalā on Maui.