Keck Archives

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Last week, on April 4, 2012, the W.M. Keck Observatory’s brand-new MOSFIRE instrument opened its infrared-sensing eyes to the Universe for the first time, capturing the image above of a pair of interacting galaxies known as The Antennae. Once fully commissioned and scientific observations begin, MOSFIRE will greatly enhance the imaging abilities of “the world’s most productive ground-based observatory.”

Installed into the Keck I observatory, MOSFIRE — which stands for Multi-Object Spectrometer For Infra-Red Exploration — is able to gather light in infrared wavelengths. This realm of electromagnetic radiation lies just beyond red on the visible spectrum (the “rainbow” of light that our eyes are sensitive to) and is created by anything that emits heat. By “seeing” in infrared, MOSFIRE can peer through clouds of otherwise opaque dust and gas to observe what lies beyond — such as the enormous black hole that resides at the center of our galaxy.

MOSFIRE can also resolve some of the most distant objects in the Universe, in effect looking back in time toward the period “only” a half-billion years after the Big Bang. Because light from that far back has been so strongly shifted into the infrared due to the accelerated expansion of the Universe (a process called redshift) only instruments like MOSFIRE can detect it.

The instrument itself must be kept at a chilly -243ºF (-153ºC) in order to not contaminate observations with its own heat.

(Watch the installation of the MOSFIRE instrument here.)

Astronomers also plan to use MOSFIRE to search for brown dwarfs — relatively cool objects that never really gained enough mass to ignite fusion in their cores. Difficult to image even in infrared, it’s suspected that our own galaxy is teeming with them.

The impressive new instrument has the ability to survey up to 46 objects at once and then do a quick-change to new targets in just minutes, as opposed to the one to two days it can typically take other telescopes!

M82 MOSFIRE — Unprocessed image of M82 taken with MOSFIRE on April 5, 2012. (W. M. Keck Observatory)

Images taken on the nights of April 4 and 5 are just the beginning of what promises to be a new heat-seeking era for the Mauna Kea-based observatory!

“The MOSFIRE project team members at Keck Observatory, Caltech, UCLA, and UC Santa Cruz are to be congratulated, as are the observatory operations staff who worked hard to get MOSFIRE integrated into the Keck I telescope and infrastructure,” says Bob Goodrich, Keck Observatory Observing Support Manager. “A lot of people have put in long hours getting ready for this momentous First Light.”

Keck Domes — The two Keck 10-meter domes atop Mauna Kea. (Rick Peterson/WMKO)

Read more on the Keck press release here.

The W. M. Keck Observatory operates two 10-meter optical/infrared telescopes on the summit of Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. The spectrometer was made possible through funding provided by the National Science Foundation and astronomy benefactors Gordon and Betty Moore.

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There are two Keck telescopes – Keck I and Keck II; together they make up the W.M. Keck Observatory, though strictly speaking the observatory is a great deal more than just the telescopes (there’s all the instrumentation, especially the interferometer, the staff, support facilities, etc, etc, etc.).

William Myron Keck (1880-1964) established a philanthropic foundation in 1954, to support scientific discoveries and new technologies. One project funded was the first Keck telescope, which was quite revolutionary at the time. Not only was it the largest optical telescope (and it still is) – it’s 10 meters in diameter – but is made up of 36 hexagonal segments, the manufacture of which required several breakthroughs … and all 36 are kept in line by a system of sensors and actuators which adjusts their position twice a second. Keck I saw first light in 1993. Like nearly all modern, large optical telescopes, the Keck telescopes are alt-azimuth. Fun fact: to keep the telescope at an optimal working temperature – no cool-down period during the evening – giant aircons work flat out during the day.

The Keck telescopes are on the summit of Hawaii’s Mauna Kea, where the air is nearly always clear, dry, and not turbulent (the seeing is, routinely, below 1″); an ideal site for not only optical astronomy, but also infrared.

The second Keck telescope – Keck II – saw first light in 1996, but its real day of glory came in 1999, when one of the first adaptive optics (AO) systems was installed on it (the first installed on a large telescope).

2004 saw another first for the Keck telescope – a laser guide star AO system, which gives the Keck telescopes a resolution at least as good as the Hubble Space Telescope’s (in the infrared)!

And in 2005 the two Keck telescopes operated together, as an interferometer; yet another first.

To learn more, I suggest that you start with the official W.M. Keck Observatory website! Revolution in Telescope Design Debuts at Keck After Birth Here is a 1992 Lawrence Berkeley Lab article which captures some the excitement of those early days; and The Keck Telescopes viewed from the North puts the Keck telescopes in the Mauna Kea context.

Universe Today has covered the Keck telescopes, many times, in many different ways; for example, Keck Uses Adaptive Optics for the First Time, Binary Icy Asteroid in Jupiter’s Orbit, and New Technique Finds Farthest Supernovae.

Astronomy Cast has a couple of episodes on the Keck telescopes; check them out! The Rise of the Supertelescopes, and Adaptive Optics.

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Keck Observatory Fires Up MOSFIRE

Keck Telescope