Announcements 2008

3 March 2008: This dark-skies awareness activity led by NOAO and the GLOBE Program has drawn more than 5,500 measurements from citizen-scientists all over the world since it began on February 25. Get out before March 9 and look up at the constellation Orion (seen here over the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory) to add to the growing database!

27 February 2008: The STFC and the Executive Agency have prepared the following statement for public distribution The Science and Technology Facilities Council has reaffirmed the UK's position as a full member of the Partnership under the terms of the current Gemini Agreement. The Gemini Board welcomes this statement. The Board acknowledges the STFC's need to address its budgetary constraints and notes that, under the terms of the Agreement, the UK is entitled to seek to sell some of its telescope time both within the partnership and, subject to the approval of the Board, outside the current partnership. The Board has directed the Observatory to continue the UK as a full partner, participating in all subsequent observing semesters, and all relevant committees and functions of the Observatory. Gemini Board Resolution 2008.Feb.25 A written communication from the STFC Designated Member has recommitted the UK position as a full Partner under the Gemini Agreement, with …

20 February 2008: A team of astronomers led by Ph.D. student Rogemar A. Riffel (Universidad do Rio Grande do Sul) have detected streaming gas flows toward the Seyfert nucleus of NGC 4051 located at an estimated distance of about 9.3 Megaparsecs. They used the Near-infrared Field Spectrograph (NIFS), fed by Altair, the Gemini North adaptive optics system, to target the central core of the galaxy. Unlike earlier optical observations of gas inflows into other active galactic nuclei (AGN) (NGC 1097, see GeminiFocus, June 2006, p. 22 and NGC 6951, see ApJ, 2007, 670. 959) these new infrared observations provide even stronger evidence of such inflows since the extinction effects due to dust are less severe in the infrared. To achieve this new result, accurate subtraction of the stellar velocity field from the gaseous velocity field allowed the researchers to isolate non-circular motions observed in the H2-emitting gas (geminiann08007a). Two nuclear spiral arms – …

19 February 2008: The binary star SDSS J121209.31+013627.7, commonly known as SDSS 1212, is possibly the first interacting binary where a substellar companion has been directly detected -- via near-infrared spectroscopy with GNIRS on Gemini South. Although it was initially suspected to represent a detached, non-interacting system containing a cool, 10,000 K, magnetic white dwarf plus a brown dwarf companion, this new study favors the interpretation that the pair represent a magnetic cataclysmic variable (called a polar for the highly polarized light emitted by the mass-transferred material falling in a magnetic field) with a substellar donor in a quiescent (non-eruptive) state. The research team, led by Jay Farihi (Gemini Observatory/University of Leicester) and including Matt Burleigh (University of Leicester) and Don Hoard (Spitzer Science Center) obtained spectroscopic data from 1-2.5 microns, which was only possible with Gemini/GNIRS due to the intrinsic faintness of this system and the fact that the light emitted changes …

19 February 2008: Intended as a sparkplug for communication between NOAO and our community, this new electronic newsletter provides updates—and solicits community input—on NOAO observing opportunities and NOAO programs and policies on a more rapid timescale than is possible with the quarterly NOAO-NSO Newsletter. The first issue includes articles on ReSTAR, Gemini, and supernova spectroscopy.

11 February 2008: The Executive Agency and the STFC agreed this morning on the terms for discussion of possible continued UK involvement in Gemini. Dates are being set for this discussion. Accordingly the Gemini Observatory has been asked to reinstate the 2008A UK observing time allocation according to the Board's resolution. The agreement between the Executive Agency and the STFC removes the conditional nature of the reinstatement in the Board resolution: Resolution 2008.Feb.09 The Board has received new correspondence from the STFC regarding the UK involvement in Gemini. The UK has committed to continue their Operations payments during 2008, and wishes to open negotiations with the Executive Agency and the Board to explore their options for continued participation in the Gemini Observatory. Therefore, the Board resolves to conditionally reinstate 2008A UK observing time allocations on both Gemini-North and Gemini-South. The Board asks that the Chair and Designated Members, including the UK, meet face-to-face …

7 February 2008: Since the last week of January, the weather atop Mauna Kea has been, “atrocious” in the words of Gemini North’s Head of Science Operations Inger Jørgensen. “Since the night starting on January 28th we have been on the sky only once for a total of 2.3 hours!” she reports. As of February 7th, the snow and ice on Mauna Kea continue to plague the summit area and crews have been working almost continuously to keep the observatories accessible for optimistic night-crews. Ron Koehler of Mauna Kea Support Services said, “This winter has really worn out the road crew. They have been working 7 days a week to open the roads to the observatories only to be faced with the same view of a snow covered road the next day. It is a nightmare for them facing a deja vu on top of deja vu!” Meanwhile, below in Hilo (and much …

31 January 2008: A new wide-field image of Pickering’s Triangle taken with the National Science Foundation’s Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory was released recently at the 211th meeting of the American Astronomical Society. This nebula is part of the Cygnus Loop supernova remnant, which includes the famous Veil Nebula. It is located about 1,500 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Cygnus, the Swan. Astronomers estimate that the supernova explosion that produced the nebula occurred between 5,000 to 10,000 years ago; the entire shell stretches more than six full Moons in width across the sky.

25 January 2008: The Gemini Board determined during a special session on January 24, 2008 that a recently submitted proposal from the UK’s Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC) for reduced on-going participation in the Gemini partnership is not in the best interest of the observatory. As a result, the board concluded that the UK has withdrawn from the Gemini partnership. The effects of this action are immediate and are articulated in the Board resolutions which can be found here. The observatory, together with the Gemini Board, reiterates their confidence that their vision for Gemini, as a world-class astronomical research facility, will be fulfilled despite the loss of a long-time partner. The partnership, through the Board and in close consultation with the Observatory and our Gemini communities, will be looking to the future in the coming months and taking a measured and deliberate approach to the reformulation of the partnership.

16 January 2008: A “new” star appeared in the constellation of Orion in late 2003 when the young pre-main sequence star V1647 Orionis went into outburst. The eruption and huge increase in brightness of the object resulted in the appearance of a reflection nebula called “McNeil’s Nebula,” named after the amateur astronomer, Jay McNeil, who discovered the object and alerted the world. During the outburst the star and nebula remained bright for approximately 18 months before fading rapidly over a six month period. By early 2006 the star and its environment were very similar to their pre-burst stage. The event was monitored and observed with many ground- and space-based facilities and Gemini Observatory played a key role in monitoring the event during its eruptive and quiescent phases. A team led by Colin Aspin (IfA/University of Hawai‘i), Tracy Beck (STScI) and Bo Reipurth (IfA/University of Hawai‘i) spearheaded the monitoring campaign of this unique event. …

11 January 2008: Suggests Major Revisions to Concepts of Disk Structure and Luminosity. Observations of the interacting binary star using telescopes at Kitt Peak National Observatory and NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope suggest that the disks of hot gas that accumulate around a wide variety of astronomical objects—from degenerate stars in energetic binary systems to supermassive black holes at the hearts of active galaxies—are likely to be much larger than previously believed. Released at the 211th AAS Meeting in Austin.

8 January 2008: This page highlights a sample of Gemini related science results presented at the 211th meeting of the American Astronomical Society meeting in Austin Texas from January 7-11, 2008. NIFS Characterization of a Galactic Compact H II Region Robert Blum (NOAO) and Peter McGregor (ANU) used the Near-Infrared Integral Field Spectrometer (NIFS) + AO on Gemini North to study the Galactic Ultra-Compact HII region G45.45+0.06. The NIFS data let Blum and McGregor identify several massive O-type stars which are responsible for the ionization of the region. In the paper, “The Ionizing Stars of the Galactic Ultra Compact HII Region G45.45+0.6” several sources were characterized, including two embedded sources that exhibit CO bandhead emission that is likely a signature of accretion from massive young stellar objects within the complex. Magnetic Fields of T Tauri Stars in the Orion Nebula Cluster Based on data from the Phoenix Spectrometer on Gemini South, Hao Yang …

3 January 2008: The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) Project is pleased to announce receipt of two major gifts: $20 million from the Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences and $10 million from Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Under development since 2000, with work on the telescope design and site being led by NOAO, the LSST is a public-private partnership. These two gifts enable the fabrication of the three large mirrors required for LSST — the first stages of production for the two largest are beginning now at the Mirror Laboratory at the University of Arizona. LSST Press Release [pdf]