|
|
|
|
Gemini e-Newscast January 2021
|
|
At Gemini North, operations remain unchanged. COVID case counts on Hawai`i Island have remained relatively low since the reopening of the islands to mainland visitors in October. However, travel restrictions, including the need for a pre-test before leaving the mainland, remain in place and we are not accepting visiting observers in the coming semester.
Operations at Gemini South are proceeding well. COVID infection rates continue to trend slowly up as we move into the Chile holiday season, therefore Gemini South will most likely continue to operate under the current model, which has proven to be successful.
|
|
The Earliest Supermassive Black Hole and Quasar in the Universe
|
|
|
|
Credit: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva
|
|
|
The most distant quasar known has been discovered. The quasar, J0313-1806, is the most distant ever discovered and its light left just 670 million years after the Big Bang. 1,000 times more luminous than the Milky Way, it is powered by the earliest known supermassive black hole, which weighs in at more than 1.6 billion times the mass of the Sun. This fully formed distant quasar is also the earliest yet discovered, providing astronomers with insight into the formation of massive galaxies in the early Universe. The result included critical Gemini observations and was released earlier this month at the January 2021 meeting of the American Astronomical Society. Read the full press release here.
|
|
|
Three 20-foot-long containers containing the GHOST spectrograph subassembly parts is now safely unloaded and stored on Cerro Pachón. These containers were at sea coming from Canada when the pandemic began disrupting operations in Chile, and arrived at port when there was uncertainty about our ability to transport them to the summit For the past eight months the containers sat in the La Serena base facility parking lot, waiting for the end of the pandemic shutdown of the Gemini South telescope. This milestone means we are now ready to resume the project. A significant number of the GHOST spectrograph subassembly parts are on site, including: the inner and outer enclosures, the optical bench, much of the electronics, and lots of assembly equipment. The remaining GHOST components yet to arrive include the spectrograph optics, detectors, slit viewer assembly, science optical fiber cable, and additional electronics, which will all be shipped via air. Clearance for our partner teams from Canada and Australia to travel to Chile is necessary for the completion of the project and we estimate it will take four months once travel commences.
|
|
The Gemini Card Game is Online!
|
|
Have you heard of the Gemini Card Game (GCG) but never had the chance to hold a deck in your hands? Or you have a deck, but can’t meet with your game buddies? No problem! GCG can now be played online via Tabletopia.
Enjoy the improved gameplay, with a new game board and automated set-up. For more details, visit www.gemini.edu/gcg.
|
|
January Fast Turnaround Call for Both Gemini North and South
|
|
|
Gemini North and South continue to accept Fast Turnaround (FT) proposals. The next deadline ends at 23:59 Hawai‘i Standard Time on 31 January 2021. Successful proposals from this cycle will stay active in the Queue from March 2021 until May 2021. Gemini North is offering Altair in Natural Guide Star mode or NIRI for this cycle. Please check the telescope schedule for Gemini North and South and their instrument availability for the March-April-May cycle. 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. For more details, please check the FT Call for Proposals page here: http://www.gemini.edu/observing/phase-i/ft/ft-cfp. Updates are provided on the FT News page.
|
|
Letters of Intent Due for 2021 Large and Long Programs
|
|
|
Letters of Intent are due by 8 February 2021 for new Large and Long Program proposals. See the Gemini LLP page for more information.
|
|
Best Practices for Multi-Institution Astronomy Communication
|
|
A white paper on best practices for communicating multi-institutional astronomical results was released as part of a virtual media workshop on multi-messenger and time-domain astronomy. The workshop was offered jointly by NOIRLab and the AAS Press Office as part of the 237th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS). The white paper was supported by GEMMA program NSF funding and is available here.
The media workshop video is publicly available online.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
