|
April 5, 2001
NOAO Releases new image of M51 | This beautiful image of the famous Whirlpool galaxy, M51, was taken with the NOAO Mosaic CCD camera on the National Science Foundation's 0.9-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. The image has been used by the Space Telescope Science Institute to provide context for a zoom-in image of the center of M51 from the Hubble Space Telescope. Located in the constellation Canes Venatici, the "hunting dogs," M51 consists of the large spiral galaxy NGC 5194 and its smaller companion NGC 5195. Hot, massive stars that recently formed in NGC 5194 give the galaxy its bluish color. The reddish areas are nebulae in the galaxy in which stars are rapidly forming. M51 is approximately 31 million light years away, and it is more than 65,000 light years in diameter. NOAO Image Gallery page for M51 | Hubble Heritage M51 Site : : : : : : March 30, 2001
Largest Sunspots in a Decade are imaged by NOAO Instruments; | This whole sunspot covers more than 140,000 kilometers (86,8000 miles), 22 times the diameter of Earth, over the Sun's northern hemisphere. The darkest of the structures are the sunspot umbrae, where the magnetic fields are locally vertical. They are surrounded by lighter fibrous channels called sunspot penumbrae, where the magnetic fields are locally horizontal. The surrounding bubbly structures are known as photospheric granules, which are about 1000-2000 km (620-1,240 miles) across. More Images : : : : : : March 22, 2001
Astronomers detect part of Universe's missing mass | Measurements taken with the National Science Foundation's Blanco 4-meter telescope at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory's Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory in Chile have helped an international team of researchers propose that unseen cool white dwarf stars may represent a significant portion of galactic dark matter. The source of this so-called missing matter has eluded astronomers for nearly 70 years. UC Berkeley Press Release : : : : : : March 19, 2001
WIYN Consortium Selected to Operate Historic Telescope on Kitt Peak | A consortium lead by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Indiana University and Yale University has been selected to assume operational responsibility for the historic 0.9-meter (36-inch) telescope at the National Science Foundation's Kitt Peak National Observatory. NOAO Press Release : : : : : : March 6, 2001M27: The Dumbbell Nebula | Astronomy Picture of the Day : : : : : : March 1, 2001Hubble Heritage Image of Edge-on Galaxy NGC 4013 | The WIYN Telescope provided the ground-based reference image for this month's Hubble Heritage image release. : : : : : : February 28, 2001
Satellites Spanning the Sky | Using an off-the-shelf camera set for a long exposure and satellite data freely available on the Internet, solar scientist Bill Livingston has developed a dependable method for taking pictures of commercial communications satellites hovering high above Earth. NOAO Press Release | Images : : : : : : February 27, 2001Hubble Zooms In on Bar of Favourite Spring Spiral Galaxy | Astronomers have long suspected that the bar systems that dominate the appearance of some spiral galaxies provide an efficient mechanism for fuelling star births at their centres. New results from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope provide evidence that this is indeed the case. NASA/ESA Photo Release. The ground-based overview image was captured by public observers at Kitt Peak's Advanced Observing Program. : : : : : : February 15, 2001NOAO's Pilachowski Elected President of AAS | Catherine (Caty) Pilachowski, a scientific staff member at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson, AZ, has been elected as the new president of the American Astronomical Society. NOAO Press Release : : : : : : February 7, 2001Survey Seeks New Neighbors, Locals Only Need Apply | An intriguing NOAO sky survey program called "In Search of Nearby Stars: the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory Parallax Investigation" aims to discover "missing" members of the small group of stars within a few dozen light-years of the Sun -- stars that will one day be destination points for robotic space probes and, sooner or later, humans. more... Distant Open Cluster M103 | Astronomy Picture of the Day : : : : : : January 23, 2001Spherical Planetary Nebula Abell 39 | Astronomy Picture of the Day : : : : : : January 18, 2001
Mould Selected as Next NOAO Director | The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. (AURA) has selected Dr. Jeremy R. Mould as the director-elect of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO). Dr. Mould's extensive management experience and international scientific reputation will enable him to take a major leadership role in moving NOAO into the roles envisioned by the recent Decadal Survey. Dr. Mould comes to the position with a wealth of experience in U.S. astronomy and as a staff member and user of NOAO facilities over the past 25 years. More recently, he has held the position of Director of the Australian National University's Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories. He will succeed Dr. Sidney Wolff at NOAO. NOAO Biographical Sketch | AURA Press Release : : : : : : January 11, 2001
Partial Image of M31 Hints at Power of On-Going Survey | A sharply detailed image of the northwest portion of the Andromeda galaxy, M31, demonstrates the power of an on-going sky survey project sponsored by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) NOAO Press Release | Images. : : : : : : January 10, 2001Watch the Sky Rotate | Astronomy Picture of the Day : : : : : : January 9, 2001
Unusual Mixing in Red Giants Identified as Unexpected Contributor to Mysterious Source of Lithium | Astronomers surveying hundreds of red giant stars in more than a dozen globular star clusters have found clues that may reveal an unexpected origin of lithium, the third element in the Periodic Table. The team used the 3.5-meter WIYN Observatory at Kitt Peak National Observatory and an optical-fiber spectrograph capable of observing dozens of red giants simultaneously to identify a handful of red giants with surprisingly high lithium abundances. NOAO Press Release | Images : : : : : : January 8, 2001
Astronomers Map Out Largest Structure In Distant Universe | By reading the light from the fiery heart of unimaginably remote galaxies, astronomers have discovered evidence for an immense concentration of galaxies over 6.5 billion light years away in the largest known group of quasars, possibly the largest structure anywhere in the observable universe. The galaxies were revealed by light they absorbed from the spectra of even more distant quasars which are located behind the large quasar group. The field was observed using the Big Throughput Camera (BTC) on the National Science Foundation's 4-meter (159 inch) Blanco telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile by NOAO Astronomer Dr. Gerard Williger. Goddard Press Release | Space.com story 
Rare Spherical Planetary Nebula Provides Step Toward Accurate Measurement of Chemical Compositions in Stars | "The truly spherical nature of this beautiful nebula helps us eliminate a common confusion concerning the actual three-dimensional geometry of most nebulae," says George Jacoby, director of the Wisconsin-Indiana-Yale-NOAO (WIYN) Observatory and co-author of a study with Gary Ferland of University of Kentucky and Kirk Korista of Western Michigan University. NOAO Press Release 
Vast Area Covered with 300,000 Galaxies and Stars Seen in First Release from NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey | The National Optical Astronomy Observatory's Deep Wide-Field Survey marks its first release of data today with a large, exhibit-sized image of 300,000 faint galaxies and stars at the opening of the 197th meeting of the American Astronomical Society. NOAO Press Release : : : : : : January 7, 2001
Astronomers Foresee Virtual Space Observatory | In the near future, anyone with a computer modem and a clever idea may be able to explore the cosmos in a virtual space observatory -- online. The idea of a national virtual observatory, offered as part of the U.S. space community's plan for the next decade, could become reality within five years at an estimated cost of $25 million and a global version could be in place by 2010, according to Stephen Strom, head of planning and development at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO). Reuter's wire story : : : : : : |
Douglas Isbell |
 |
NOAO is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), Inc. under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. |
 |
|