Kitt Peak Observatory Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory NOAO System Science Center
Image credit: Ryan Trainor (Franklin and Marshall College)
Milky Way's Neighbors Pick Up the Pace
After slowly forming stars for the first few billion years of their lives, the Magellanic Clouds, near neighbors of our own Milky Way galaxy, have upped their game and are now forming new stars at a fast clip. This new insight into the “activity history” of the Clouds comes from the first detailed chemical maps made of galaxies beyond the Milky Way. The project, carried out by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), was led by NOAO Astronomer David Nidever.
Read more in NOAO Press Release 19-03.
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An unusual supernova studied by multiple telescopes, including SOAR & telescopes at CTIO & KPNO, is thought to herald the birth of a new neutron star or black hole, caught at the moment of its creation. -
A Survey Machine and a Data Trove: Dark Energy Survey’s Rich Legacy:
the six year survey has now ended, but the Dark Energy Camera and DES survey data will continue to yield new discoveries. -
Images from the New Horizons team, which includes NOAO Astronomer Tod Lauer, of the most distant object ever explored reveal the Kuiper Belt Object Ultima Thule to be a “contact binary”. -
In preparation for its new mission as the home of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), the Kitt Peak Mayall telescope recently received its new top end. -
“Far Out” Dwarf Planet Discovered: the new dwarf planet 2018 VG18 is 120 times further from the Sun than Earth. The discovery was made in part with observing time made available through NOAO. -
Using the Gaia satellite & archival data from DECam, astronomers have discovered a large, extremely diffuse galaxy companion to the Milky Way that is as big as the Large Magellanic Cloud but 10,000× fainter. -
Pluto’s terrain shows a “washboard” pattern of fine ridges. The New Horizons team, including NOAO Astronomer Tod Lauer, suggests this is evidence of an ancient nitrogen glacier.
NOAO is the national center for ground-based nighttime astronomy in the United States and is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA). under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. If you would like information about solar astronomy, visit the National Solar Observatory. If you would like information about radio astronomy, visit the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.