Listen to the June 13, 2016 Hawaii Public Radio interview with Keahi Warfield who discusses the movement to support the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). Keahi discusses why they are openly supporting the construction and why they are expressing the need for the TMT. Please take time to listen to this interview and think about the best way for Hawaii to move forward....
The Akamai Workforce Initiative, a local program dedicated to advancing Hawai‘i college students into science and technology careers, has accepted 30 students into its 2016 summer internship program. With lead funding from the Thirty Meter Telescope, the Akamai Internship Program provides community college students and undergraduates with summer projects at observatories and other high tech companies in Hawai‘i. All 30 students are from Hawai‘i or are enrolled at a University of Hawai‘i campus, and nearly half are of native Hawaiian ancestry. The students receive credit from UH Hilo and begin on Monday, June 13, 2016, with a preparatory course taught by Akamai instructors. They will then complete a seven-week project at various observatories and facilities on Hawai‘i Island and Maui. The Akamai Workforce Initiative is designed to build tomorrow’s high-tech workforce by providing support to local college students over a broad range of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. Each student is matched with a mentor and is integrated as a member of the mentor’s group with daily guidance. Akamai mentors are prepared to provide an experience that will support their intern’s persistence in STEM, while they complete a real project valued by their host organization, through a unique workshop offered in May. The careful attention to mentoring, the preparatory course, and an ongoing communication course, are all important elements of the program and have been attributed to the program’s success. This year’s interns and their placements include: Maveric Abella Hnu Photonics, Maui Dutch Akana University of Hawai‘i at Hilo, Hawai‘i Island Daryl Albano Canada-France-Hawai‘i Telescope, Hawai‘i Island Jaren Ashcraft Institute for Astronomy, Maui Gregory Balinbin Integrity Applications...
MAUNAKEA, Hawaii – Astronomers using the W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawaii have obtained the most precise measurement yet of how fast the universe is expanding at the present time, and it doesn’t agree with predictions based on other data and our current understanding of the physics of the cosmos. The discrepancy – the universe is now expanding 9 percent faster than expected — means either that measurements of the cosmic microwave background radiation are wrong, or that some unknown physical phenomenon is speeding up the expansion of space, the astronomers say. The results, using data from Keck Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope, will appear in an upcoming issue of The Astrophysical Journal. “If you really believe our number – and we have shed blood, sweat and tears to get our measurement right and to accurately understand the uncertainties – then it leads to the conclusion that there is a problem with predictions based on measurements of the cosmic microwave background radiation, the leftover glow from the Big Bang,” said Alex Filippenko, a UC Berkeley professor of astronomy and co-author of a paper announcing the discovery. Using the Keck-I 10-meter telescope in Hawaii, Filippenko’s group measured the chemical abundances of gases near the locations of Cepheid variable stars in the nearby galaxies hosting Type Ia supernovae. This allowed them to improve the accuracy of the derived distances of these galaxies, and thus to more accurately calibrate the peak luminosities of their Type Ia supernovae. “We’ve done the world’s best job of decreasing the uncertainty in the measured rate of universal expansion and of accurately assessing the size of this uncertainty,” said Filippenko, “yet we...
On May 10, 2016 NASA held a press conference to announce officially the discovery of the a record number 1,284 confirmed extrasolar planets from Kepler’s primary mission. Among this record haul of exoplanets were also quite a few smaller worlds including some that were found to orbit inside the habitable zones (HZ) of their systems. The Keck Telescope on Mauna Kea played a vital role in sifting through the Kepler’s large list of possible planets to identify and confirm each one. You can read about all the science behind planet finding and the science behind identifying them here....
Come to the pre-hearing conference on the Thirty Meter Telescope Friday, June 17, 2016 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Hawaii State Building 72 Aupuni Street in Hilo to show your support for culture and science!...
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