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Science Friday > Archives > 2002 > January > January 11, 2002:

Hour One: ASTRONOMY UPDATE/ NEW TELESCOPE TECHNOLOGY

This week, astronomers unveiled new pictures of the universe, including the clearest image yet of the Orion Nebula, and a massive brown dwarf orbiting a sun-like star. In this hour, we'll talk about the latest astronomy news, and take a look at new ground-based telescopes that are providing images as sharp as those from the Hubble Space Telescope.

	A merger of two images taken by the Gemini North Telescope using the University of Hawaii's Hokupa'a adaptive optics system that highlights a brown dwarf image around Sge 15. Image Credit: "Gemini Observatory/University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy/Michael Liu/NSF".
	Keck adaptive optics image of 15 Sge and its companion, also obtained in the near-infrared. The arrow points to the companion, seen as a close point source. (The streaks of light around the primary star are image artifacts produced by the telescope.) Orientation and size are the same as the above Gemini image. Image Credit: "W. M. Keck Observatory/University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy/Michael Liu".
	A new color image of the nearby irregular galaxy NGC 6822 shows a myriad of hot blue massive stars and several famous nebulae in impressive detail. Image Credit: Local Group Galaxies Survey Team/NOAO/AURA/NSF
	Astronomers have produced a vastly improved radio image of the Orion Nebula by combining the imaging capabilitie sof bot the Green Bank Telescope and the Very Large Array. Image Credit: GBT-VLA NRAO

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Guests:
Michael Liu
Beatrice Watson Parent Fellow
Institute for Astronomy
University of Hawaii
Honolulu, Hawaii

Debra Shepherd
Staff Astronomer
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Socorro, New Mexico

Bruce Margon
Associate Director, Science
Space Telescope Science Institute
Baltimore, Maryland

Books/Articles Discussed:

AAS Meeting #198 Program   (find more SciFri books here)

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Related Links:
Green Bank Telescope
NRAO Very Large Array Home Page
STScI/HST Public Information
Center for Adaptive Optics
Caltech Astronomy : Palomar Observatory
Subaru Telescope, NAOJ
W.M. Keck Observatory
Gemini Observatory
The Chandra X-ray Observatory Center
FUSE: Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer
CfAO: Adaptive Optics
Washington Post: Telescope Technology May Yield Images of Extra-Solar Planets
CNN.com - Object near sunlike star caught on camera - January 8, 2002

This segment produced by: Karin Vergoth