The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) is pleased to announce Jean Toal Eisen will join the AURA Corporate Office on August 16, 2022, as the new Vice President for Corporate Strategy.
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AURA salutes the international effort of talented people who worked so hard to make these first JWST images possible.
The International Gemini Observatory, a program of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF’s) NOIRLab, which operates the Gemini North telescope on Maunakea, and its management agency the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), wish to acknowledge the Hawai‘i State Legislature for their hard work and diligence in shepherding through House Bill 2024 CD1 which will become law within the next several days.
The Contreras Fire reached the Kitt Peak National Observatory during the early morning of Friday 17 June 2022. We are working with the firefighters at the site to assess the damage and will share details about the facilities as we learn more. We remain in an active fire situation with rapidly changing conditions.
A brush fire that has been designated the Contreras Fire is burning near Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) in southern Arizona. The Fire began on a remote ridge of the Baboquivari Mountains, north of the Baboquivari Peak on the Tohono O’odham Nation on Saturday, 11 June 2022. It is burning grass and brush in steep and rugged terrain that is difficult for firefighters to access.
Astronomers estimate that 100 million black holes roam among the stars in our Milky Way galaxy, but they have never conclusively identified an isolated black hole.
Astronomers may now understand why the similar planets Uranus and Neptune are different colors. Using observations from the Gemini North telescope, the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility, and the Hubble Space Telescope, researchers have developed a single atmospheric model that matches observations of both planets.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) commissioning is on the final stretch before the telescope can start science observations! With the telescope mirrors aligned and focused, attention turns to testing JWST’s four powerful instruments in a variety of different operational modes.
Each year the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) holds an Annual Meeting for the Representatives from its Member Institutions. The 2022 meeting, held virtually this year April 25-27, included updates on AURA’s facilities, elections for AURA governance positions, and discussions about the recommendations from the 2020 Decadal Survey.
Sunspot and plage area used as a better proxy to predict magnetic phenomena and other indicators important for space weather
The interacting galaxy pair NGC 1512 and NGC 1510 take center stage in this image from the US Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera, a state-of-the-art wide-field imager on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab.
At its April 28,2022 meeting the AURA Board of Directors endorsed the following principles for the future management of astronomical facilities on Maunakea.
Alignment of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is now complete. After full review, the observatory has been confirmed to be capable of capturing crisp, well-focused images with each of its four powerful onboard science instruments.
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has determined the size of the largest icy comet nucleus ever seen by astronomers. The estimated diameter is approximately 80 miles across, making it larger than the state of Rhode Island.
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has established an extraordinary new benchmark: detecting the light of a star that existed within the first billion years after the universe’s birth in the big bang—the farthest individual star ever seen to date.
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