Gemini North telescope tagged posts

Nothing can evoke an existential perspective-spiral quite like looking at an image of a galaxy. At first glance, these sublime structures may appear rather serene. But in fact the center of many galaxies is a turbulent environment containing an actively feeding supermassive black hole.

Orbiting these incomprehensibly dense objects are swirling accretion disks of gas and dust, which feed the black hole and emit copious amounts of energy all along the electromagnetic spectrum—from high-energy gamma rays and X-rays, through visi...

Gemini North captures sprawling aftermath of head-on colllision between a pair of galaxies. The Gemini North telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, operated by NSF’s NOIRLab, captured a dazzling image of UGC12914 and UGC312915, which are nicknamed the Taffy Galaxies...

Astronomers may now understand why the similar planets Uranus and Neptune are different colors. Using observations from the Gemini North telescope, the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility, and the Hubble Space Telescope, researchers have developed a single atmospheric model that matches observations of both planets. The model reveals that excess haze on Uranus builds up in the planet’s stagnant, sluggish atmosphere and makes it appear a lighter tone than Neptune.

Neptune and Uranus have much in common — they have similar masses, sizes, and atmospheric compositions — yet their appearances are notably different. At visible wavelengths Neptune has a distinctly bluer color whereas Uranus is a pale shade of cyan...

Researchers using the Gemini North telescope on Hawai’i’s Maunakea have detected the most energeti...