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Gemini e-Newscast April 2021
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The upward trend in Hawaii COVID case counts which began in early March and was noted in the last e-Newscast has unfortunately continued, but has not so far hit the levels reached in the second half of 2020. Operations at Gemini North continue largely unchanged, with a reduced day crew on the mountain and night crew separated into two control rooms at the Hilo Base Facility. The Coquimbo region, including La Serena, have been in strict quarantine for several weeks now in order to reduce the increasing COVID case counts. Telescope operations continue, albeit with a much reduced day crew and the night observers working in separate rooms from the La Serena base facility.
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Virtual Gemini Science Meeting in August!
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We are pleased to announce that we will be holding the first on-line Gemini Science Meeting this August to bridge the gap to the in-person Gemini Science Meeting in Seoul, which has now been postponed to August 2022. We would value your participation in the survey which will help us:
- Determine the dates and time ranges that are likely to yield the highest attendance
- Forecast participation rates
- Gather input on Gemini topics of most interest
We envision the meeting to be a combination of invited and contributed science talks, Gemini Observatory updates, and hands-on training sessions, held over 3-4 hours per day over three days. It will also serve as a pilot for future virtual Gemini Science Meetings to be held during the years when an in-person conference is not planned.
The survey will be open for two weeks and will close on Wed April 28. Dates and times will be announced in mid-May. The meeting will be open to all and no registration fee will be charged. We look forward to your input to help us make this a successful, productive meeting!
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Black Hole Pairs Found in Distant Merging Galaxies
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Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva
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Astronomers at University of Illinois and Johns Hopkins University have found two close pairs of quasars in the distant Universe. Follow-up observations with Gemini North spectroscopically resolved one of the distant quasar pairs, after their discovery with the Hubble Space Telescope and Gaia spacecraft. Separated by just over 10,000 light-years, these quasars are closer together than any pair of quasars found so far away. These observations provide strong evidence for the existence of supermassive black hole pairs as well as crucial insight into galaxy mergers in the early Universe. Read the full press release here.
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Clocking the Fastest-Spinning Brown Dwarfs: Gemini North Observations Help Set Rotational Speed Limit
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Credit: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva
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Astronomers at Western University have discovered the most rapidly rotating brown dwarfs known. They found three brown dwarfs that each complete a full rotation roughly once every hour. This is approximately 10 times faster than normal and about 30 percent faster than the most rapid rotations previously measured in such objects. That rate is so extreme that if these “failed stars” rotated any faster, they could come close to tearing themselves apart. Identified by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, the brown dwarfs were then studied by ground-based telescopes including Gemini North, which confirmed their surprisingly speedy rotation. Read the full press release here.
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Fast Turnaround Proposals
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Gemini North and South are accepting proposals for the Fast Turnaround (FT) program. The upcoming deadline is at 23:59 Hawai‘i Standard Time on 30 April 2021. Successful proposals from this cycle will be active in the Queue from June 2021 through Aug 2021. We are happy to announce that we are accepting proposals at Gemini-N for NIRI and NIFS with Altair NGS and LGS. Please check the telescope schedule for Gemini North and South and the detailed instrument availability for the June-August period. The FT program has been used to conduct pilot studies, complete observations for existing data sets, follow-up on newly discovered objects, and much more. Proposing teams are typically notified within a few weeks of the deadline, and data for successful programs can be obtained as early as a week or two after that. All submitted FT proposals must be consistent with the policies of the Dual Anonymous Review Process (DARP), as described in the Call for Proposals here.
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