#gemini north telescope

[spacewonder19]

Planet Jupiter © Juno, Gemini North, Hubble

[nature-godsgardenofeden]

The Gemini North telescope turned its gaze toward the Pinwheel Galaxy, offering a crystal-clear view of a new supernova discovered in May 2023 ♥ https://www.space.com/new-supernova-photo-pinwheel-galaxy-noirlab?

[detailedart]

Clearest picture of Jupiter, from Earth. Isn't she beautiful? Actually hundreds of photos taken by the Gemini North Telescope in Hawaii, compiled to produce the infrared snap in order to see beyond Jupiter’s hazy atmosphere.

[lonestarflight]

Apollo Program: Lunar Module (LM) production and names

The Grumman Aerospace Corporation was awarded the contract on November 7, 1962. Originally designated Lunar Excursion Module (LEM), NASA ordered 25 lunar modules (10 test articles and 15 production models) for testing and landing on the moon. This was to go with the 15 Saturn Vs and Apollo CSMs. They were assembled in Grumman's factory in Bethpage, New York.

"There were initially four major subcontractors: Bell Aerosystems (ascent engine), Hamilton Standard (environmental control systems), Marquardt (reaction control system) and Rocketdyne (descent engine).

The Primary Guidance, Navigation and Control System (PGNCS) was developed by the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory; the Apollo Guidance Computer was manufactured by Raytheon (a similar guidance system was used in the command module). A backup navigation tool, the Abort Guidance System (AGS), was developed by TRW."

-Information from Wikipedia: link

After the Gemini 3 spacecraft was dubbed Molly Brown by Gus Grissom, NASA forbade naming spacecraft. For Apollo 9, this changed due to mission controllers in Houston needing a way to differentiate between the two spacecraft.

Between 1969 and 1972, Grumman produced a series of insignias for their Lunar Modules which were distributed in limited quantities to their employees in the form of decals and prints.

Apollo 5 (LM-1): none

Apollo 3 (and later 2) (LM-2): Never used, intended for a mission similar to Apollo 5. The success of LM-1 led to the cancellation.

Apollo 9 (LM-3): Spider

Apollo 10 (LM-4): Snoopy. The LM ascent stage in heliocentric orbit and is the only known one to have survived intact

Apollo 11 (LM-5): Eagle (originally named haystack)

Apollo 12 (LM-6): Intrepid

Apollo 13 (LM-7): Aquarius

Humorously, Grumman sent North American (the manufacturer of the Apollo Command and Service Module) a tow bill sometime after the crew returned. North American retorted back saying they've never sent them a tow bill for the previous missions.

Apollo 14 (LM-8): Antares.

Apollo 15 (originally) (LM-9): never used, on display the Kennedy Space Center.

Intended for Apollo 15 and was the last H-type mission. When Apollo 18 was cancelled, it was decided to make Apollo 15 the first J-type mission.

Apollo 15 (LM-10): Falcon, originally intended for Apollo 16. First of the extended stay series.

Apollo 16 (LM-11): Orion, originally intended for Apollo 17

Apollo 17 (LM-12): Challenger, originally intended for Apollo 18.

Note: this name was reused for the second operational Space Shuttle Orbiter. After the Challenger Disaster, NASA officially retired the name.

Apollo 18 (LM-13): never used, originally intended for 19. It was partially completed when Apollo 18 and 19 were cancelled. Later restored by Grumman workers and is on display at the Cradle of Aviation History and Education Center.

Apollo 19 (LM-14): never used, originally intended for Apollo 20. It was partially completed when Apollo 18 and 19 were cancelled. What was completed, was later scrapped.

Apollo 20 (LM-15): never used, partially completed, scrapped. When Apollo 20 was cancelled, it was intended for modification into the Apollo Telescope Mount. Later the Telescope Mount was integrated into Skylab and this dedicated mission was cancelled.

source, source, source, source, source

NASA ID: MSFC-69-MS-G-1300-27, S67-50927, AS09-21-3183, AS10-34-5087, AS11-40-5946, AS12-46-6726, AS13-59-8566, AS14-66-9306, AS15-88-11866, AS16-113-18339, AS17-140-21370

[just--space]

Arp 78: Peculiar Galaxy in Aries : Peculiar spiral galaxy Arp 78 is found within the boundaries of the head strong constellation Aries. Some 100 million light-years beyond the stars and nebulae of our Milky Way galaxy, the island universe is over 100,000 light-years across. Also known as NGC 772, it sports a prominent, outer spiral arm in this detailed cosmic portrait from the large Gemini North telescope near the summit of Maunakea, Hawaii, planet Earth. Tracking along sweeping dust lanes and lined with young blue star clusters, Arp 78's spiral arm is likely pumped-up by galactic-scale gravitational tidal interactions The close companion galaxy responsible is NGC 770, located off the upper right of this frame. But more distant background galaxies are clearly visible in the cosmic field of view. via NASA

[netmassimo]

An article published in the journal "The Astrophysical Journal Letters" reports the discovery of the most distant pair of merging quasars known. A team of researchers combined observations from the Subaru Telescope with the Gemini North Telescope to find traces of this pair of quasars that we see as they were about 900 million years after the Big Bang.

[andromeda1023]

In this panorama, the Milky Way galaxy curves over the summit of Maunakea in Hawai‘i like an arched gateway to the cosmos. The 8.1-meter Gemini North, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, operated by NSF’s NOIRLab, is visible at the center of the image, and the 3.8-meter United Kingdom Infrared Telescope is to its right. From atop the long-dormant volcano, in the dry air of the Pacific, Gemini North and its neighboring telescopes are superbly located for infrared observations.

The infrared capabilities of Gemini North — and its twin telescope Gemini South in the southern hemisphere — allow astronomers to see through the cosmic dust that blocks visible light from stars and galaxies. They are also optimal for peering into the cold corners of the Universe. Gemini North has detected the potential first traces of the Universe’s earliest stars, confirmed the presence of an ultra-faint fossil galaxy, and detected two black holes within distant merging galaxies.

This photo was taken as part of the recent NOIRLab 2022 Photo Expedition to all the NOIRLab sites.Credit:

International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/T. Slovinský

[orallech]

Gemini North telescope super nova IMAGE

[cavenewstimes]

Astronomers Measure Heaviest Pair of Supermassive Black Holes Ever Found

Astronomers using archival data from the Gemini North telescope have measured a binary supermassive black hole located within the elliptical galaxy B2 0402+379. An artist’s impression of a supermassive black hole binary in the elliptical galaxy B2 0402+379. Image credit: NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / J. daSilva / M. Zamani. The pair of compact objects in the center of B2 0402+379 is the only…

[icarusthelunarguard]

This Week’s Horrible-Scopes

It’s time for this week’s Horrible-Scopes! So for those of you that know your Astrological Signs, cool! If not, just pick one, roll a D12, or just make it up as you go along. It really doesn’t matter. Better yet! Check out “Heart of the Game, Fredonia” and see if they can sell you those D12’s with the symbols on them. Tell them “Shujin Tribble” sentcha. And “Hail, Hail, Fredonia!” Home of the Blue Devil!

Now that the clocks have all switched back to what we’d like to call “CORRECT TIMES”, let’s give you all some Night-Themed ‘Scopes. And yes, there was a suggestion for a theme this week… but that’s requiring more research than we had time for. Don’t worry, we’re getting to it.

Aries 

At 5pm local time, face the west coast of North America and say “Goodnight” to Hollywood. Not just because of the Billy Joel song of the same name, but because that’s where the Sun goes to die every day. Sure, sure, people in Hawai’i CLAIM to see the Sun long after it’s gone down for us all over on the mainland, but come on. Who you gunna believe? Us or people who say they live on an island where the weather’s always perfect? This Week… Trust Nobody! Not… Even… Us.

Taurus 

One of the best parts of this season is the cold wintery nights. Get yourself some hot chocolate, a warm blanket, a comfortable beach chair, and some good quality binoculars. Looking up at the night sky is so much better now when there’s so little atmospheric turbulence getting in the way. This Week… Imagine what it was like for Galileo, looking up at the moons of Jupiter for the first time… and his telescopes were NOTHING compared to what you can use today for under $100!  

Gemini  

You need to get out more, and what better time than now? It’s still cold at night to wake you up before you drive home, and there’s less snow on the ground than there will be soon. This Week… get your Lyft and Uber accounts setup and pre-paid so you can get sloshed in public like you promised God you’d never do again.

Cancer Moon-Child 

When was the last time you got to the Opthomologists? We’re guessing it’s been a while. Now’s the time, since your astigmatism is going to be getting worse. No, that headlight streaking you see isn’t from your windshield wipers, it’s your cornea. This Week… send your parents the bill for the corrective lenses you’ll need. It’s ultimately a genetic issue and they’re the cause. Hold Them Accountable!

Leo 

Your search for The Ultimate Truth is going to bring you into a disastrous realization… that you’re the LAST person alien civilizations should make first contact with. Not that you’re a bad person, but that your scope of mathematics, geometry, and chemistry knowledge are… and let’s be generous here… “Lacking”. This Week… Learn how to make a Three Dimensional Object with only TWO PHYSICAL SIDES!

Virgo 

You need to combat your seasonal depression any way you can. Changing your diet will only go so far, so here’s an idea for you; change your visual stimulus! Step one - wear sunglasses with yellow lenses to brighten up everything. Second, listen to soothing sounds - like the water lapping at the beach as seagulls wheel overhead. And third This Week… Go out and buy Simulated Sunlight Light Bulbs. Or just get the remote-controlled colour-changing LED light bulbs. And find the right temperature setting that helps you. 

Libra 

Get your snow tires out NOW! You need to get your oil changed, so you might as well trade out the tires while you’re at it. And before you say it’s too early, remember how you ended up going down the highway sideways because you hit that black ice and a gust of wind? This Week… double-check you have the tires on the correct way. Remember, they have arrows on the sidewalls to remind you which way they’re supposed to spin. 

Scorpio 

Two words for you this week: Smooth Jazz. Turn down the lights, sip some liquor, and enjoy some Dave Brubeck or Nat “King” Cole in your ears. It’ll be a great way to relax after the week ahead. This Week… Well… we just told you. Liquor, assuming you know her. If not, do some poker.

Sagittarius 

You want to do some photography, right? How about something sorta complicated, requiring you to do some math? If you hook up your digital SLR camera to your computer you can setup time-lapse photos through your window at the sky. But you’ll need to do the math to see how long you want the final video to be, how many frames per second, how many photos per minute to take… So This Week… check how much hard drive space you have left. And empty your Fax Directory. We all know you don’t have any Faxes stored there.

Capricorn 

With Autumn here it’s time to enjoy fresh-pressed apple cider. Yes you could do it yourself, but it’s more fun to go out to an orchard and watch them smash bushels of apples and run them through a hydraulic press. If you want to do it at home you’ll need about 6 apples, a decent knife, a lot of cheese cloth… and something to press-out the juices. This Week… Buy a gallon at the store and watch some Hydraulic Press videos on YouTube instead. You’ll be amazed at how much pressure LEGOs can take

Aquarius 

You get to enjoy the season best. There are all kinds of stories or videos to keep you entertained through the early night. Let’s start off with the Pet-Themed “You Laugh You Lose” playlists. Find the video where a woman makes snow angels and her horse joins her on the ground to do it too, and follow that rabbit hole down until you can't stop smiling. This Week… Enjoy yourself! You earned it!

Pisces  

Paranoia is your friend this week. Christmas is closing in on you faster than you know. If you don’t get all the things you need you’ll never get your Santa Clause Capture Machine built, tested, and deployed in time. And remember - you DON’T need a building variance for it if you keep it inside your house this time. This Week… watch “The Nightmare Before Christmas” for ideas on how to catch Sandy Claws.

And THOSE are your Horrible-Scopes for this week! Remember if you liked what you got, we’re obviously not working hard enough at these. BUT! If you want a better or nastier one for your own sign or someone else’s, all you need to do to bribe me is just Let Me Know! These will be posted online at the end of each week via Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, Discord and BLUESKY.

[merelygifted]

Hackers attack 2 of the world's most advanced telescopes, forcing shutdown | Live Science

Some of the world's leading astronomical observatories have reported cyberattacks that have resulted in temporary shutdowns.

The National Science Foundation's National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, or NOIRLab, reported that a cybersecurity incident that occurred on Aug. 1 has prompted the lab to temporarily halt operations at its Gemini North Telescope in Hawaii and Gemini South Telescope in Chile. Other, smaller telescopes on Cerro Tololo in Chile were also affected.

"Our staff are working with cybersecurity experts to get all the impacted telescopes and our website back online as soon as possible and are encouraged by the progress made thus far," NOIRLab wrote in a statement on its website on Aug. 24.  ...

[ravnlghtft]

[spacenutspod]

Galaxy cluster SDSS J1531+3414X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/O. Omoruyi et al.; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI/G. Tremblay et al.; Radio: ASTRON/LOFAR; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk Astronomers have discovered one of the most powerful eruptions from a black hole ever recorded in the system known as SDSS J1531+3414 (SDSS J1531 for short). As explained in our press release, this mega-explosion billions of years ago may help explain the formation of a striking pattern of star clusters around two massive galaxies, resembling “beads on a string.” SDSS J1531 is a massive galaxy cluster containing hundreds of individual galaxies and huge reservoirs of hot gas and dark matter. At the center of SDSS J1531, which is located about 3.8 billion light-years away, two of the cluster’s largest galaxies are colliding with each other. Astronomers used several telescopes to study SDSS J1531 including NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR), a radio telescope. This composite image shows SDSS J1531 in X-rays from Chandra (blue and purple) that have been combined with radio data from LOFAR (dark pink) as well as an optical image from the Hubble Space Telescope (appearing as yellow and white). The inset gives a close-in view of the center of SDSS J1531 in optical light, showing the two large galaxies and a set of 19 large clusters of stars, called superclusters, stretching across the middle. The image shows these star clusters are arranged in an ‘S’ formation that resembles beads on a string. The multiwavelength data provides signs of an ancient, titanic eruption in SDSS J1531, which a team of researchers think was responsible for creation of the 19 star clusters. Their argument is that an extremely powerful jet from the supermassive black holes in the center of one of the large galaxies pushed the surrounding hot gas away from the black hole, creating a gigantic cavity. The evidence for a cavity comes from “wings” of bright X-ray emission, seen with Chandra, tracing dense gas near the center of SDSS J1531. These wings are the edge of the cavity and the less dense gas in between is part of the cavity. LOFAR shows radio waves from the remains of the jet’s energetic particles filling in the giant cavity. These features are highlighted in a labeled version of the image. Multiwavelength Image of SDSS J1531, LabeledX-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/O. Omoruyi et al.; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI/G. Tremblay et al.; Radio: ASTRON/LOFAR; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk The astronomers also discovered cold and warm gas located near the opening of the cavity, detected with the Atacama Large Millimeter and submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the Gemini North Telescope, respectively. A separate graphic shows the optical image with the cold gas added in green (left), and the warm gas added in red (right). The team argues that some of the hot gas pushed away from the black hole eventually cooled to form the cold and warm gas shown. The team thinks tidal effects from the two merging galaxies compressed the gas along curved paths, leading to the star clusters forming in the “beads on a string” pattern. Cold and warm gas located near the opening of the cavity.Optical/Halpha: NASA/ESA/STScI; Radio: ESO/NAOJ/NRAO A paper led by Osase Omoruyi of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) describing these results has recently been published in The Astrophysical Journal and is available online here. The authors of the paper are Grant Tremblay (CfA), Francoise Combes (Paris Observatory, France), Timothy Davis (Cardiff University, UK), Michael Gladders (University of Chicago), Alexey Vikhlinin (CfA), Paul Nulsen (CfA), Preeti Kharb (National Centre for Radio Astrophysics — Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, India ), Stefi Baum (University of Manitoba, Canada), Christopher O’Dea (University of Manitoba, Canada), Keren Sharon (University of Michigan), Bryan Terrazas (Columbia University), Rebecca Nevin (Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory), Aimee Schechter (University of Colorado Boulder), John ZuHone (CfA), Michael McDonald (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Hakon Dahle (University of Oslo, Norway), Matthew B. Bayliss (University of Cincinnati), Thomas Connor (CfA), Michael Florian (University of Arizona), Jane Rigby (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), and Sravani Vaddi (Arecibo Observatory) NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts. Read more from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. For more Chandra images, multimedia and related materials, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/mission/chandra-x-ray-observatory/ Visual Description: This is an image of a cluster of galaxies called SDSS J1531+3414 in X-ray, optical, and radio light. The overall scene resembles a colorful display of lights as if viewed through a wet, glass window. Blurry orange dots of different sizes are scattered across a black background. These orange dots are entire galaxies. Near the center of the image, two central galaxies appear as bright, white dots. Star clusters, resembling beads on a string in shades of electric blue, sweep over the galaxy on the left, through the space in between the galaxy pair, and then lightly coil beneath both galaxies. Clouds of blue, X-ray light, and dark pink, radio light, surround the two galaxies. The blue cloud spreads out for thousands of light-years toward the region above the central galaxies. The dark pink cloud, somewhat resembling the shape of an upside down spinning top toy, stretches far below the two galaxies and slightly toward our left. This dark pink cloud represents the remains of a powerful jet, produced by a supermassive black hole within one of the two central galaxies. In the upper right corner of the image, another dark pink cloud is present. This cloud may be the relic of a counter-jet from the same black hole outburst. News Media Contact Megan WatzkeChandra X-ray CenterCambridge, Mass.617-496-7998 Jonathan DealMarshall Space Flight CenterHuntsville, Ala.256-544-0034

[astroblogs]