Kitt Peak Observatory Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory NOAO System Science Center
Background Image Credit: P. Marenfeld & NOAO/AURA/NSF; Overlay Credit: John Livingston
44 Planets Beyond the Solar System
Speckle imaging observations made at the WIYN telescope on Kitt Peak have been used, in combination with data from other facilities, to confirm the existence of 44 exoplanets. Four of the planets have orbital periods shorter than a day. Sixteen have sizes within twice that of the Earth. The graphic illustrates the planetary sizes and surface temperatures and compares their orbital radii to that of Mercury. The discoveries were made by a team that includes NOAO astronomer Mark Everett.
Read more in the Science Daily article
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US scientists invited to help develop exemplar Key Science Programs (KSPs) for GMT and TMT. The KSPs are a key element of the US ELT Program to
be presented to the 2020 Decadal Survey. -
Light echoes from the “Great Eruption” in the mid-1800’s of eta Carinae reveal critical details about a centuries-old event. Read more in the Gemini Observatory press release. -
Observations made with DECam on the CTIO Blanco Telescope have led to the discovery of 12 additional moons of Jupiter, including its smallest known moon, Valetudo, less than one kilometer in diameter. -
Light from a flashlight is dispersed into a spectrum by one of the spectrographs that will be integrated into the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) at the 4-m Mayall telescope. -
An international team including NOAO astronomer Tom Matheson views most distant star ever seen, 9 billion light years away. The blue supergiant's light was magnified 2000× by the gravity of a passing star. -
New results suggest that most, if not all, of the known asteroids originate from only a few “common ancestors”. The study was done by a team that includes NOAO astronomer Dan Li. -
The Mayall telescope’s new top end ring was recently installed using a 450 ton crane with a 250 foot boom. The top ring will support new optics for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI).
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.