Posted on by John Williams

Dark Matter Filaments Bind Galaxies Together

A slim bridge of dark matter – just a hint of a larger cosmic skeleton – has been found binding a pair of distant galaxies together.

According to a press release from the journal Nature, scientists have traced a thread-like structure resembling a cosmic web for decades but this is the first time observations confirming that structure has been seen. Current theory suggests that stars and galaxies trace a cosmic web across the Universe which was originally laid out by dark matter – a mysterious, invisible substance thought to account for more than 80 percent of the matter in the Universe. Dark matter can only be sensed through its gravitational tug and only glimpsed when it warps the light of distant galaxies.

Astronomers led by Jörg Dietrich, a physics research fellow in the University of Michigan College of Literature, Science and the Arts, took advantage of this effect by studying the gravitational lensing of galactic clusters Abell 222 and 223. By studying the light of tens of thousands of galaxies beyond the supercluster; located about 2.2 billion light-years from Earth, the scientists were able to plot the distortion caused by the Abell cluster. The scientists admit it is extremely difficult to observe gravitational lensing by dark matter in the filaments because they contain little mass. Their workaround was to study a particularly massive filament that stretched across 18 megaparsecs (nearly 59 million light-years) of space. The alignment of the string enhanced the lensing effect.

The team’s results were published in the July 4, 2012 issue of Nature.

“It looks like there’s a bridge that shows that there is additional mass beyond what the clusters contain,” Dietrich said in a press release. “The clusters alone cannot explain this additional mass.”

By examining X-rays emanating from plasma in the filament, observed from the XMM-Newton satellite, the team calculated that no more than nine percent of the filament’s mass could be made up of the hot gas. Computer simulations further suggested that just 10 percent of the mass was due to visible stars and galaxies. Only dark matter, says Dietrich, could make up the remaining mass.

“What’s exciting,” says Mark Bautz, an astrophysicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, “is that in this unusual system we can map both dark matter and visible matter together and try to figure out how they connect and evolve along the filament.”

Refining the technique could help physicists understand the structure of the Universe and pin down the identity of dark matter (whether it’s a cold slow-moving mass or a warm, fast-moving one. Different types would clump differently along the filament, say scientists.

Image caption: Dark-matter filaments, such as the one bridging the galaxy clusters Abell 222 and Abell 223, are predicted to contain more than half of all matter in the Universe. (credit: Jörg Dietrich, University of Michigan/University Observatory Munich)

Posted on by Paul Scott Anderson

‘Stealth Merger’ of Dwarf Galaxies Seen in New Images

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Space may be vast, but accidents can still happen, like when galaxies “collide,” usually resulting in the smaller one having its stars scattered by the larger one. New high-resolution images of two dwarf galaxies merging together have now been obtained by astronomers, providing a more detailed look at something which could only barely be seen before. While the larger galaxy of the two, NGC 4449, is easily visible, its smaller companion was little more than just a faint smudge until now.

The new study comes from an international team of astronomers led by David Martínez-Delgado of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg. Their paper will be published in an upcoming issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters.

When the galaxies collide, the smaller one essentially gets torn apart by the larger one. As explained by Aaron Romanowsky, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), “This is how galaxies grow. You can see the smaller galaxy coming in and getting shredded, eventually leaving its stars scattered through the halo of the host galaxy.”

The remains of the smaller galaxy appear as a dense stream of stars in the outer regions of the larger one. It was initially seen as just a faint smudge in digitized photographic plates from the Digitized Sky Survey project. Because this smaller galaxy, or what’s left of it, is so difficult to see, the merging process has been referred to as a “stealth merger.”

The new images, taken by the Black Bird Observatory and Subaru Telescope, show the merger in such detail that individual stars can be seen. “I don’t think I’d ever seen a picture of a galaxy merger where you can see the individual stars. It’s really an impressive image,” said Romanowsky.

NGC 4449 is about 12.5 million light-years from Earth and is part of a group of galaxies found in the constellation Canes Venatici. It is similar to one of our own Milky Way’s satellite galaxies, the Large Magellanic Cloud.

While larger galaxies merging with other large galaxies are commonly seen, it has been more difficult to find examples of smaller galaxies doing the same thing. Romanowsky continues: “We should see the same things at smaller scales, with small galaxies eating smaller ones and so on. Now we have this beautiful image of a dwarf galaxy consuming a smaller dwarf.”

In addition, the companion galaxy was also independently discovered by astronomers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Their own paper will be published in the February 9, 2012  issue of Nature.

The paper is available here. See also the Subaru Telescope press release here.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

A Star-Making Blob from the Cosmic Dawn

This image shows one of the most distant galaxies known, called GN-108036, dating back to 750 million years after the Big Bang that created our universe. Credit: NASA, ESA, JPL-Caltech, STScI, and the University of Tokyo

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Looking back in time with some of our best telescopes, astronomers have found one of the most distant and oldest galaxies. The big surprise about this blob-shaped galaxy, named GN-108036, is how exceptionally bright it is, even though its light has taken 12.9 billion years to reach us. This means that back in its heyday – which astronomers estimate at about 750 million years after the Big Bang — it was generating an exceptionally large amount of stars in the “cosmic dawn,” the early days of the Universe.

“The high rate of star formation found for GN-108036 implies that it was rapidly building up its mass some 750 million years after the Big Bang, when the Universe was only about five percent of its present age,” said Bahram Mobasher, from the University of California, Riverside. “This was therefore a likely ancestor of massive and evolved galaxies seen today.”


An international team of astronomers, led by Masami Ouchi of the University of Tokyo, Japan, first identified the remote galaxy after scanning a large patch of sky with the Subaru Telescope atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Its great distance was then confirmed with the W.M. Keck Observatory, also on Mauna Kea. Then, infrared observations from the Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes were crucial for measuring the galaxy’s star-formation activity.

“We checked our results on three different occasions over two years, and each time confirmed the previous measurement,” said Yoshiaki Ono, also from the of the University of Tokyo.

Astronomers were surprised to see such a large burst of star formation because the galaxy is so small and from such an early cosmic era. Back when galaxies were first forming, in the first few hundreds of millions of years after the Big Bang, they were much smaller than they are today, having yet to bulk up in mass.

The team says the galaxy’s star production rate is equivalent to about 100 suns per year. For reference, our Milky Way galaxy is about five times larger and 100 times more massive than GN-108036, but makes roughly 30 times fewer stars per year.

Astronomers refer to the object’s distance by a number called its “redshift,” which relates to how much its light has stretched to longer, redder wavelengths due to the expansion of the universe. Objects with larger redshifts are farther away and are seen further back in time. GN-108036 has a redshift of 7.2. Only a handful of galaxies have confirmed redshifts greater than 7, and only two of these have been reported to be more distant than GN-108036.

About 380,000 years after the Big Bang, a decrease in the temperature of the Universe caused hydrogen atoms to permeate the cosmos and form a thick fog that was opaque to ultraviolet light, creating what astronomers call the cosmic dark ages.

“It ended when gas clouds of neutral hydrogen collapsed to generate stars, forming the first galaxies, which probably radiated high-energy photons and reionized the Universe,” Mobasher said. “Vigorous galaxies like GN-108036 may well have contributed to the reionization process, which is responsible for the transparency of the Universe today.”

“The discovery is surprising because previous surveys had not found galaxies this bright so early in the history of the universe,” said Mark Dickinson of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson, Ariz. “Perhaps those surveys were just too small to find galaxies like GN-108036. It may be a special, rare object that we just happened to catch during an extreme burst of star formation.”

Sources: Science Paper by: Y. Ono et al., Subaru , Spitzer Hubble

Posted on by Tammy Plotner

3-D View From Subaru – Stephan’s Quintet

Composite tricolor images of Stephan's Quintet using H? filters with a recession velocity of 0 (left image) and a recession velocity of 4,200 miles per second (right image).

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While this isn’t a true “cross eye” image, you can darn sure open the larger version, set it to screen size, cross your eyes and get a pretty astonishing result. If you don’t “get it”, then don’t worry. Just look at the pictures separately, because the Subaru Telescope has added a whole new dimension to a seasonal favorite – Stephen’s Quintet. Located in the constellation of Pegasus (RA 22 35 57.5 – Dec +33 57 36), this awesome little galaxy group also known as HIckson Compact Group 92 and Arp 319. In visual observation terms, there’s five – but only four are actually a compact group. The fifth is much closer…

While literally volumes could be written about this famous group, the focus of this article is on the latest observations done by the Subaru Telescope. Each time the “Quints” are observed, it would seem we get more and more information on them! By employing a variety of specialized filters with Subaru’s Prime Focus Camera (Suprime-Cam), the two above images reveal different types of star-formation activity between the closer galaxy – NGC7320 – and the more distant members. It captures Stephen’s Quintet in three dimensions.

So how is it done? Suprime-Cam has the capability of wide field imaging. By utilizing specialized filters, researchers can narrow the photographic process to specific goals. In this instance, they use narrowband filters to reveal star-forming regions within the grouping and their structures. These H-alpha filters are very specific – only allowing a particular wavelength of light to pass through – revealing the hydrogen emissions of starbirth. But here’s the tricky part. The images were taken with two different types of H-alpha filters – each one with a different recession velocity. With a setting of zero, we have an object which is moving away from the observer and close. The other has a greater recession velocity of 4200 miles (6,700 km) per second. This is an indicator of distant objects. For a color palette, red indicates the H-alpha emission lines while blue and green colors assigned to the images from the blue and red filters captured light so that the composite tricolor images aligned with human color perception in red, green, and blue.

When processed, we get the two different views of Stephen’s Quintet as seen above. Says the imaging team; “The image on the left shows the galaxies when the observers used the Ha filter with a recession velocity of 0 while the one on the right shows them when they used the Ha filter with a recession velocity of 4,200 miles per second. The left image shows Ha emissions that indicate an active star-forming region in the spiral arms of NGC7320 in the lower left quadrant but not in the other galaxies. The right image contrasts with the left and shows a region of H-alpha emissions in the upper three galaxies but none from NGC7320. Two (NGC7318A and NGC7318B) of the four galaxies are shedding gas because of a collision while a third (NGC7319) is crashing in, creating shock waves that trigger vigorous star formation.”

But that’s not all. In the figure below we can see the relationship of the galaxies. “Gas stripped from these three galaxies during galactic collisions is ionized by two mechanisms: shock waves and strong ultraviolet light emanating from the newborn stars.” reports the Subaru team. “This ionized gas emits bright light, which the H-alpha filter reveals. Thus the researchers believe that NGC7319 as well as NGC7318A/B are driving the star-forming regions in the Ha emitting region around NGC7318A/B.”

A diagram of the member galaxies of Stephan's Quintet. NGC7320 is a closer galaxy and has a recession velocity of 0. The remaining four are a group of more distant galaxies 300 million light years away. The researchers believe that the merging of NGC7318A/B and NGC7319's crashing into them are responsible for the active star formation regions in the Ha emitting region around NGC7318A/B.

But star-forming activity isn’t all you can derive from these images – they are also an indicator of distance. By exposing opposing recession velocities in the same image, observers are able to deduce where objects are located at different distances, yet close to each other. “The contrasting images show that NGC7320 is closer than the other galaxies, which show active star formation at a significantly higher recession velocity (4,200 miles per second) than NGC7320 (0).” explains the team. “NGC7320 is about 50 million light years away while the other four galaxies are about 300 million light years away. This explains the intriguing arrangement of the galaxies in Stephan’s Quintet.”

Now is a great time to observe this cool cluster of galaxies for yourself… Before the Moon interferes again!

Original Story Source: Subaru Telescope Press Release.

Posted on by Tammy Plotner

Free Range Brown Dwarfs

Brown dwarfs in the young star cluster NGC 1333. This photograph combines optical and infrared images taken with the Subaru Telescope. Brown dwarfs newly identified by the SONYC Survey are circled in yellow, while previously known brown dwarfs are circled in white. The arrow points to the least massive brown dwarf known in NGC 1333; it is only about six times heftier than Jupiter. Credit: SONYC Team/Subaru Telescope

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Using two of the world’s largest optical-infrared telescopes, the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii and the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, an international team of astronomers has discovered more than two dozen brown dwarf stars floating around in two galactic clusters. During the Substellar Objects in Nearby Young Clusters (SONYC) survey, these “failed stars” came to their attention by showing up in extremely deep images of the NGC 1333 and rho Ophiuchi star clusters at both optical and infrared wavelengths. To make the findings even more exciting, these stellar curiosities outnumbered the “normal” stars in one cluster!

“Our findings suggest once again that objects not much bigger than Jupiter could form the same way as stars do. In other words, nature appears to have more than one trick up its sleeve for producing planetary mass objects,” says Professor Ray Jayawardhana, Canada Research Chair in Observational Astrophysics at the University of Toronto and leader of the international team. Their discovery will be published in two upcoming papers in the Astrophysical Journal and will be presented this week at a scientific conference in Garching, Germany.

Spectra of several brown dwarfs in the young star cluster NGC1333, taken with the FMOS instrument on the Subaru Telescope. The spectra show a characteristic peak around 1670nm. Water steam in a brown dwarf's atmosphere absorbs radiation on both sides of the peak. The plot shows that the strength of the water absorption increases in cooler objects (from 3000 to 2200K). FMOS allows astronomers to take spectra for many objects simultaneously, a crucial advantage for the SONYC Survey. Credit: SONYC Team/Subaru Telescope

Using spectroscopy, the researchers were able to separate candidate brown dwarfs by their red color. But there’s more to the story than just hues. In this case, it’s the identification of one that’s only about six times more massive than Jupiter. Located in NGC 1333, it is the smallest known free-floating object to date. What does that mean? “Its mass is comparable to those of giant planets, yet it doesn’t circle a star. How it formed is a mystery,” said Aleks Scholz of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies in Ireland, lead author of the first paper.

Brown dwarfs are indeed unusual. They walk a fine line between planet and star – and may have once been in stellar orbit, only to be ejected at some point in time. But in this circumstance, all of the brown dwarfs found in this particular cluster have very low mass – only about twenty times that of Jupiter. “Brown dwarfs seem to be more common in NGC 1333 than in other young star clusters. That difference may be hinting at how different environmental conditions affect their formation,” said Koraljka Muzic of the University of Toronto in Canada, lead author of the second paper.

“We could not have made these exciting discoveries if not for the remarkable capabilities of Subaru and the VLT. Instruments that can image large patches of the sky and take hundreds of spectra at once are key to our success,” said Motohide Tamura of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.

Free-range brown dwarfs? I’ll take mine over easy…

Original Story Source: Subaru Telescope News.

Posted on by Ray Sanders

Even the Early Universe Had the Ingredients for Life

The optical image of TN J0924-2201, a very distant radio galaxy at (redshift) z = 5.19, obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope. (c) NASA/STScI/NAOJ.

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For us carbon-based life forms, carbon is a fairly important part of the chemical makeup of the Universe. However, carbon and oxygen were not created in the Big Bang, but rather much later in stars. How much later? In a surprising find, scientists have detected carbon much earlier in the Universe’s history than previously thought.

Researchers from Ehime University and Kyoto University have reported the detection of carbon emission lines in the most distant radio galaxy known. The research team used the Faint Object Camera and Spectrograph (FOCAS) on the Subaru Telescope to observe the radio galaxy TN J0924-2201. When the research team investigated the detected carbon line, they determined that significant amounts of carbon existed less than a billion years after the Big Bang.

How does this finding contribute to our understanding of the chemical evolution of the universe and the possibilities for life?

To understand the chemical evolution of our universe, we can start with the Big Bang. According to the Big Bang theory, our universe sprang into existence about 13.7 billion years ago. For the most part, only Hydrogen and Helium ( and a sprinkle of Lithium) existed.

So how do we end up with everything past the first three elements on the periodic table?

Simply put, we can thank previous generations of stars. Two methods of nucleosythesis (element creation) in the universe are via nuclear fusion inside stellar cores, and the supernovae that marked the end of many stars in our universe.

Over time, through the birth and death of several generations of stars, our universe became less “metal-poor” (Note: many astronomers refer to anything past Hydrogen and Helium as metals”). As previous generations of stars died out, they “enriched” other areas of space, allowing future star-forming regions to have conditions necessary to form non-star objects such as planets, asteroids, and comets. It is believed that by understanding how the universe created heavier elements, researchers will have a better understanding of how the universe evolved, as well as the sources of our carbon-based chemistry.

So how do astronomers study the chemical evolution of our universe?

By measuring the metallicity (abundance of elements past Hydrogen on the periodic table) of astronomical objects at various redshifts, researchers can essentially peer back into the history of our universe. When studied, redshifted galaxies show wavelengths that have been stretched (and reddened, hence the term redshift) due to the expansion of our universe. Galaxies with a higher redshift value (known as “z”) are more distant in time and space and provide researchers information about the metallicity of the early universe. Many early galaxies are studied in the radio portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, as well as infra-red and visual.

The research team from Kyoto University set out to study the metallicity of a radio galaxy at higher redshift than previous studies. In their previous studies, their findings suggested that the main era of increased metallicity occurred at higher redshifts, thus indicating the universe was “enriched” much earlier than previous believed. Based on the previous findings, the team then decided to focus their studies on galaxy TN J0924-2201 – the most distant radio galaxy known with a redshift of z = 5.19.

The deep optical spectrum of TN J0924-2201 obtained with FOCAS on the Subaru Telescope. The red arrows point to the carbon emission line.

The research team used the FOCAS instrument on the Subaru Telescope to obtain an optical spectrum of galaxy TN J0924-2201. While studying TN J0924-2201, the team detected, for the first time, a carbon emission line (See above). Based on the detection of the carbon emission line, the team discovered that TN J0924-2201 had already experienced significant chemical evolution at z > 5, thus an abundance of metals was already present in the ancient universe as far back as 12.5 billion years ago.

If you’d like to read the team’s findings you can access the paper Chemical properties in the most distant radio galaxy – Matsuoka, et al at: http://arxiv.org/abs/1107.5116

Source: NAOJ Press Release

Posted on by Tammy Plotner

Uncloaking Type Ia Supernovae

This three-color composite of a portion of the Subaru Deep Field shows mostly galaxies with a few stars. The inset shows one of the 10 most distant and ancient Type Ia supernovae discovered by the American, Israeli and Japanese team.

Type Ia supernovae… Right now they are one of the most studied – and most mysterious – of all stellar phenomenon. Their origins are sheer conjecture, but explaining them is only half the story. Taking a look back into almost the very beginnings of our Universe is what it’s all about and a team of Japanese, Israeli, and U.S. astronomers have employed the Subaru Telescope to give us the most up-to-date information on these elementally explosive cosmic players.

By understanding the energy release of a Type Ia supernova, astronomers have been able to measure unfathomable distances and speculate on dark energy expansion. It was popular opinion that what caused them was a white dwarf star pulling in so much matter from a companion that it finally exploded, but new research points in a different direction. According to the latest buzz, it may very well be the merging of two white dwarfs.

“The nature of these events themselves is poorly understood, and there is a fierce debate about how these explosions ignite,” said Dovi Poznanski, one of the main authors of the paper and a post-doctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

“The main goal of this survey was to measure the statistics of a large population of supernovae at a very early time, to get a look at the possible star systems,” he said. “Two white dwarfs merging can explain well what we are seeing.”

Can you imagine the power behind this theory? The Type Ia unleashed a thermonuclear reaction so strong that it is able to be traced back to nearly the beginning of expansion after the Big Bang. By employing the Subaru telescope and its prime focus camera (Suprime-Cam), the team was able to focus their attention four times on a small area named the Subaru Deep Field. In their imaging they caught 150,000 individual galaxies containing a total of 40 Type Ia supernova events. One of the most incredible parts of these findings is that these events happened about five times more frequently in the early Universe. But no worries… Even though the mechanics behind them are still poorly understood, they still serve as “cosmic distance markers”.

“As long as Type Ias explode in the same way, no matter what their origin, their intrinsic brightnesses should be the same, and the distance calibrations would remain unchanged.” says Alex Filippenko, UC Berkeley professor of astronomy.

Original Story Source: University of Berkeley News Release. For Further Reading: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan: Subaru News Release.

Posted on by Tammy Plotner

Red-Burning Galaxies… Let’s Get The Party Started!

An image illustrating the number density of galaxies estimated to be four billion light years from the Earth. Bright areas indicate high-density regions. The brightest region in the center corresponds to the main body of the CL0939 cluster. Red squares show the positions of the red -burning galaxies while the greenish-blue dots show the blue H? emitting galaxies. Evidently, the red burning galaxies avoid the central region of the cluster and concentrate in small groups located far away from it.

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Utilizing the Subaru Telescope, a research team of astronomers from the University of Tokyo and the National Astronomical Society of Japan (NAOJ) used a wide-field image to take a look four billion years back in time. The object of their interest was a galaxy cluster, but what really took their fancy wasn’t the old matrons – it was the red star-forming galaxies hanging around the edges.

Just exactly what is a “red-burning galaxy”? Astronomers hypothesize they might be the transitional key between the young and old… and present at a party that shows dramatic evolution. It’s not the fact that such galaxies exist within galactic clusters, but why they seem to appear along the outskirts.

When galaxies first began forming under the weight of their own gravity some ten billion years ago, they either became part of big clusters or small groups. As they came together, they took on properties of their environment – just as party goers tend to group together where interests are similar. At a galactic get-together with high density, galaxies form into lenticular or elliptical, while the solitary wall flowers tend toward spiral structure. But exactly how they form and evolve is one of astronomy’s greatest enigmas.

A panoramic view of the CL0939+4713 cluster located 4 billion light years away from Earth. Images were captured with the Subaru Prime Focus Camera (Suprime-Cam), all of which are a composite of a B-band image (blue), a R-band image (green), and a z'-band image (red). Left 27 arcmin x 27 arcmin field of view. Top-right: Close-up view of the central cluster region, 2.5 arcmin x 2.5 arcmin field of view. Bottom-right: Example of the concentration of red-burning galaxies, which are marked with red squares.

To help solve the mystery, researchers are looking further back into the past. A research team led by Dr. Yusei Koyama used the Subaru Prime Focus Camera (Suprime-Cam) to carry out a panoramic observation targeting a relatively well-known rich cluster, CL0939+4713. By using a special filter that separates the hydrogen-alpha emission lline Koyama’s team members identified more than 400 galaxies showing a narrowband excess which could denote the star formation process. Strangely enough, it was these very galaxies that showed an impressive amount of red and were located in groups well away from the main body.

Needless to say, this opened the door to even more questions. Where did they come from and why are they concentrated in groups and not clusters? At this point, who knows? Astronomers are positive the “red-burning galaxies” get their properties from starbirth – not elderly populations. They also anticipate the main galaxy cluster will one day absorb these strays into the main body as well. How can they tell? Just like the party, the red-burning galaxies are already changing in relationship to their environment. Older galaxies that no longer have active star-forming regions seem to be increasing in the groups, exactly where the red-burners are most frequently found.

“This suggests that the red-burning galaxies are related to the increase in old galaxies, and that they are likely to be in a transitional phase from a younger to an older generation. The finding that such transitional galaxies are located most frequently within group environments shows that galaxy groups are the key environments for understanding how environment shapes the evolution of galaxies.” says the Subaru research team. “This should be an important and exciting step toward a more complete understanding of the environments shaping the galaxies in the present-day Universe.”

Party on, dudes…

Original Story Source: Subaru Telescope Press Release.

Posted on by Jon Voisey

Japanese Astronomy Pushes on After Hard Year

Artists concept of Japan’s Akatsuki spacecraft at Venus. Credit: JAXA

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From faulty spacecraft to two damaged facilities, the past year has been a tough year for Japan’s astronomical programs. Yes despite the setbacks, Japan has already begun working to fix every problem they’ve faced in this difficult year.

The troubles started late last year as Japan’s Venus exploring spacecraft, Akatsuki failed to properly enter orbit around Venus. Ultimately, the failure was blamed on a faulty valve that didn’t allow the thruster to fire for the full length of the burn necessary to transfer into the correct orbit. Instead, the craft is now in a wide orbit around the Sun. The organization in charge of the probe, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced earlier this month that they will “attempt to reignite the damaged thruster nozzle” and, if the test goes well, can try again for an orbital insertion in November 2015.

The next setback came with the devastating March 11th earthquake which the facilities being used to study the samples returned from the sample and return mission Hayabusa were damaged. While the particles were safe, the sensitive accelerators that are used to study them suffered some damage. Restoration work is already underway and the teams in charge expect some operations to resume as early as this fall. Other instruments may take until early next year to resume operation. Despite the damage, the preliminary data (done before the Earthquake) has confirmed the particles are from the visited asteroid. They contain minerals such as olivine and iron sulfide contained in a rocky-type asteroid. No organic materials have been detected.

More recently, Japan’s flagship observatory, Subaru atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii, was damaged when coolant leaked onto several instruments as well as the primary mirror, halting operations early last month. According to the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) which maintains the telescope, the mirror was washed with water which was successful in restoring its functionality. The primary camera, the Subaru Prime Focus Camera (Suprime-Cam) and its auxiliary equipment were also affected and are currently being inspected. However, the telescope has a second focus, known as a Nasmyth focus. Several instruments which make use of this focus, including the High Dispersion Spectograph, the 188-element Adaptive Optics system, the Infrared Camera and Spectrograph, and the High Contrast Instrument for the Subaru Next Generation Adaptive Optics, were all unaffected. With the cleaning of the mirror and the use of these instruments, the telescope was able to resume operations on the night of July 22.

With any luck, fortunes will continue to improve for Japan and their hard work and dedication can help them to overcome these issues. Ganbatte!

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Subaru 8-meter Telescope Damaged by Leaking Coolant

Orange-colored coolant covers the mirror surface of the Subaru Telescope. Credit: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan

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A “serious hardware incident” has shut down the Subaru Telescope indefinitely. A leak allowed orange-colored coolant to spill over the primary mirror and into the main camera, as well as into other instruments and the structure of the telescope. The damage is still being assessed. During the clean-up and recovery of equipment, nighttime observations have been suspended, as well as daytime summit tours of the telescope.

An announcement posted on the Subaru telescope website said that operators detected an error signal while shutting down the observation system at the end of the night shift during the early morning of Saturday, July 2, 2011.

When engineers arrived to assess the situation, they found extensive leakage of coolant (ethylene glycol) over most of the entire telescope. The leak originated from the “top unit” of the telescope, which is located at the center of the top ring and includes the Subaru Prime Focus Camera (Suprime-Cam) and auxiliary optics.

Although they promptly shut off the supply of coolant, a significant amount of leakage had already occurred, from the top unit itself down to the tertiary mirror, the primary mirror and some of its actuators, the Faint Object Camera and Spectrograph (FOCAS, a Cassegrain instrument) and its auxiliary optics, and the telescope floor.

The engineers attempted to clean up and remove as much coolant as possible. However, such areas as optics, control circuits, and the inside of Suprime-Cam and FOCAS were inaccessible during the initial clean-up.
The coolant consists of a mixture of water and ethylene glycol, a liquid commonly used in a vehicle’s radiator for cooling. The coolant is not corrosive and does not damage the primary mirror, which has a foundation of glass.

The Subaru Telescope is located on the Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii, with offices in the town of Hilo. The Subaru website said they will post updates on the status of the telescope and its recovery.

Source: Subaru Telescope website