Gemini News Archive
Planetoid Pairs Reveal a Kinder, Gentler Neptune
Press Release | 2017 April 4
The Gemini/CFHT observations help address ongoing questions and debates among scientists about Neptune’s migration from its primordial formation orbital location to its current locale.
Exploring a Fast Radio Burst in Three Dimensions
Press Release | 2017 January 5
Gemini Observatory provides critical rapid follow up observations of a Fast Radio Burst – one of modern astronomy's greatest enigmas. These observations provide the first details on a burst's distant extragalactic host.
The Beautiful Messiness of Star Birth
Press Release | 2016 December 29
A new image released today by the Gemini Observatory offers a deep, revealing view into an active stellar nursery known as GGD 27. The infrared view peels back layers of obscuring gas and dust to unshroud the inner workings of star formation.
Are All Stars Created Equal?
Press Release | 2016 November 9
Astronomers using critical observations from the Gemini Observatory have found the strongest evidence yet that the formation of more massive stars follow a path similar to their lower-mass brethren - but on steroids!
Cluster’s Advanced Age in Razor-sharp Focus
Press Release | 2016 October 12
An international team of astronomers, using the Gemini Multi-conjugate adaptive optics System (GeMS) and the high resolution camera GSAOI, brought the ancient globular cluster NGC 6624 into razor-sharp focus and determined its age with very high accuracy － a challenging observation even from space.
Gemini Images Galaxy That Is 99.99 Percent Dark Matter
Press Release | 2016 August 24
Using the W. M. Keck Observatory and the Gemini North telescope – both on Maunakea, Hawai‘i – astronomers found a galaxy whose mass is almost entirely Dark Matter.
Gemini Tracks Collapse of Io's Atmosphere During Frigid Eclipses
Press Release | 2016 August 1
Gemini observations show that the thin atmosphere of Jupiter's moon Io undergoes dramatic changes during frequent eclipses with the giant planet.
Gemini Observatory Instrumental in Exoplanet Harvest
Press Release | 2016 July 18
Gemini Observatory plays a key role in the latest harvest of over 100 confirmed exoplanets from NASA’s K2 mission, the repurposed Kepler spacecraft. Three instruments on the Gemini North telescope delivered precise images verifying many of the candidate stars as planetary system hosts. Researchers note that these systems could contain a considerable number of rocky, potentially Earth-like exoplanets.
Exploring a Frozen Extrasolar World
Press Release | 2016 July 6
As the Juno mission begins exploring Jupiter in our Solar System, scientists explore a solo world that researchers say looks more similar to Jupiter than any exoplanet yet discovered.
Ultra-sharp Image Uncovers the Shocking Lives of Young Stars
Press Release | 2016 June 17
The world’s most advanced adaptive optics system reveals “shocking” details on star formation in a new image released by the Gemini Observatory probing a swarm of young and forming stars that appear to have been shocked into existence.
Lonely Black Hole Relic Shines Light on Young Universe
Press Release | 2016 April 5
Astronomers using the 8-meter Gemini North telescope on Hawaii’s Maunakea have probed an enigmatic, and unexpected, supermassive black hole dominating the core of a large galaxy in the cosmic backwaters.
NSF Selects AURA to Continue Managing Gemini
Press Release | 2016 February 5
The National Science Board (NSB) and the international Gemini Board have authorized the NSF to award a new 6-year, $208 million cooperative agreement to the AURA for the management and operation of the Gemini Observatory.
Gemini Helps Confirm Dark “Noodles” in Milky Way
Press Release | 2016 January 21
Clumps of gas shaped like noodles could be floating around in our Galaxy, radically challenging our understanding of gas conditions in the Milky Way.
Searching for Orphan Stars Amid Starbirth Fireworks
Press Release | 2015 September 25
A new Gemini Observatory image reveals the remarkable “fireworks” that accompany the birth of stars. The image captures in unprecedented clarity the fascinating structures of a gas jet complex emanating from a stellar nursery at supersonic speeds. The striking new image hints at the dynamic (and messy) process of star birth. Researchers believe they have also found a collection of runaway (orphan) stars that result from all this activity.
Watching an Exoplanet in Motion Around a Distant Star
Press Release | 2015 September 14
A team of astronomers has given us our best view yet of an exoplanet moving in its orbit around a distant star.
Gemini Installs Record-Breaking Rooftop PV Solar Panel System
Press Release | 2015 September 10
Continuing Gemini Observatory’s commitment to the positive stewardship of our planet, Gemini leads in the use of renewable energy sources on Maunakea.
Gemini-Discovered World is Most Like Jupiter
Press Release | 2015 August 13
Going beyond the discovery and imaging of a young Jupiter, astronomers using the Gemini Observatory's new Planet Imager (GPI) have probed a newly discovered world in unprecedented detail.
NGC 2346: A COSMIC BUTTERFLY’S DELICATE WINGS
Press Release | 2015 July 9
NOAO scientists, using the Gemini Observatory 8-meter telescope in Chile, have obtained the highest resolution image ever obtained for the planetary nebula NGC 2346.
Seeing Where Stars Collide
Press Release | 2015 June 15
Using the advanced adaptive optics system GeMS, on the Gemini South telescope, astronomers have imaged a beautiful stellar jewel-box – a tightly packed cluster of stars that is one of the few places in our galaxy where astronomers think stars can actually collide.
FAR FROM HOME: WAYWARD CLUSTER IS BOTH TINY AND DISTANT
Press Release | 2015 March 3
Astronomers have found an unusually small and distant group of stars that seems oddly out of place. The cluster, made of only a handful of stars, is located far away, in the Milky Way’s “suburbs.” It is located where astronomers have never spotted such a small cluster of stars before.
