July 11, 2023
Color image of a UNIONS field

Hawai’i Observatories Adding Color to the Euclid Space Mission 

The Euclid mission plans to observe billions of galaxies across more than a third of the sky, building a 3D map of the Universe. By observing more than one-third of the observable sky outside the Milky Way, Euclid will image billions of targets out to a distance of ten billion light years. Astronomers estimate the distances to these galaxies – […]
September 16, 2022
A conceptual rendering of the discovery

Discovery of a Temperate “Super-Earth” in the Habitable Zone Around a Nearby Star

Using the Subaru Telescope on Maunakea and the Faulkes telescope on Haleakalā, observers have discovered two temperate, rocky planets a little larger than our own Earth, and both orbiting a faint red star just 100 light years from us. One of the two lies in the star’s “habitable zone” and so could have liquid water on its surface. Read more, […]
August 2, 2022
Schematic diagram of Ross 508 planetary system

Subaru Telescope Survey Detects Its First Exoplanet in the Habitable Zone

Researchers using the Subaru Telescope on Maunakea have found an exoplanet which spends about half its time in the “habitable zone” around its host star, and which may be able to retain liquid water on its surface. The exoplanet – known as Ross 508b – will be a prime target for life searches by a future generation of large telescopes. […]
June 16, 2022
Near Sun object 323P/SOHO

Maunakea Observatories Help Catch a Comet Disintegrating

Using the Subaru telescope on Maunakea, astronomers have discovered a Jupiter-like planet in the Three Maunakea telescopes (Subaru, CFHT and Gemini) played key, complementary parts in capturing the first ever images of a rocky comet (named 323P/SOHO) breaking apart close to the Sun. This helps to explain why so few near-Sun comets are observed. Read Read more, in the Subaru […]
April 12, 2022
AB Aurigae

Subaru Telescope Spots a Planet in Formation

Using the Subaru telescope on Maunakea, astronomers have discovered a Jupiter-like planet in the process of being formed in another solar system. This ground-breaking experiment provides evidence for a long-debated alternative theory for how Jupiter-like planets form. Read more, in the Subaru Telescope web release.
January 7, 2022
Rogue planets

Rogue Planets by the Hundred

Online viewers of the Subaru Telescope live stream were mesmerised by a cluster of more than a dozen meteors One Scouring through images from CFHT, Subaru and a number of other telescopes worldwide, an international team of astronomers has found the largest collection of free-floating “rogue” planets ever discovered, measuring their brightness, colour and miniscule motions across the sky. These […]
October 25, 2021
Image of the planet 2M0437

Infant Planet Discovered using Maunakea Telescopes

Online viewers of the Subaru Telescope live stream were mesmerised by a cluster of more than a dozen meteors One of the youngest planets ever observed around a distant star was recently discovered by an international team of scientists, using the Subaru and Keck observatories on Maunakea. The planet is several million years old, which is as young as the […]
August 6, 2021
Meteor cluster event

Subaru Telescope Captures a Rare Meteor Cluster

Online viewers of the Subaru Telescope live stream were mesmerised by a cluster of more than a dozen meteors streaking across the dark Maunakea sky in quick succession, in the early hours of July 14th. The objects were also captured by the University of Hawaii’s all-sky camera on Haleakalā. The video is now being analyzed in detail by researchers. Read […]
May 5, 2021
A fireball in Maunakea night sky

Night and Day, a Live Stream of the Sky from Subaru Telescope

Subaru telescope now live streams a section of the eastern sky from Maunakea via the YouTube channel of Asahi Space Club. This is in collaboration with the Asahi-Shimbun, one of the most popular newspapers in Japan. The camera streams its images both night and day; at night, it’s a good place to watch for meteors and other celestial events. Read […]
April 7, 2021
Comet

Subaru Telescope Observes a Comet Nucleus Covered in “Talcum Powder”

Astronomers using the Subaru Telescope on Maunakea have measured the characteristics of mid-infrared light from an old comet nucleus. The comet, originally detected by the Pan-STARRS survey telescope on Haleakalā, passed quite close to the Earth and the team managed to observe it just a day before its closest approach. Besides measuring the size of the nucleus (about half a […]
March 1, 2021

Farfarout is Indeed Far, Far Out

Thanks to observations with the Subaru and Gemini North telescopes both on Hawaii’s Maunakea, astronomers have confirmed that a faint object discovered in 2018 and nicknamed “Farfarout” is indeed the most distant object yet found in our Solar System. Farfarout was first spotted in January 2018 by the Subaru Telescope and the discoverers could tell it was very far away, […]
January 12, 2021
Animation of the asteroid 1998 KY26

Subaru Telescope Charts a Course to a Close-passing Asteroid

The Subaru Telescope on Maunakea recently captured images of the asteroid 1998 KY26, which travels close to Earth only once every 3.5 years. This asteroid is small, just 30 meters (less than 100 ft) across, so it is faint enough that most ground based telescopes can’t even detect it. Importantly, 1998 KY26 is the next target for the Japan Aerospace […]