Great Observatories Program Back in 2009, NASA released the following image of Messier-101 to celebrate the Great Observatories Program and to commemorate the International Year of Astronomy, 2009. From left to right, the Grand Design Spiral can be seen in Infrared light from the Spitzer Space telescope (the IR Predecessor to JWST), visible light from[…]
To suffer is to learn humility, true humility. Jocelyn Bell, no doubt, suffered in silence from the insult and the culture that led to it, one of the greatest professional injustices in modern academia. Given my Irish heritage, I have a particular interest in this story and, although the title could be a trigger or[…]
Using the Keck Observatory’s Low Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (LRIS) and DEep Imaging and Multi-Object Spectrograph (DEIMOS) attached to the 10 meter telescopes on Mauna Kea, we’ve observed a long-postulated, third type of supernova, an “Electron Capture” supernova. It is believed, based on composite imaging across multiple spectral regimes, the famous Crab Nebula may have been[…]
