Mauna Kea, Hawaii

Fig. 7.1. The British infrared telescope at Mauna Kea, Hawaii. The picture shows the housing for the 3.8 m diameter mirror, the supporting frame, and the interior of the aluminium dome with its sliding window ( 1979 by Photolabs, Royal Observatory, Edinburgh.)...

Studies carried out on Earth, for example, by the NASA infrared telescope on Mauna Kea (Hawaii), showed albedo variations which indicated the presence of holes in the Titanian cloud formations (Griffith, 1993). It is, however, still unclear as to whether these inhomogeneities result from differences in the surface composition. Lorenz et al. (1997) reported large variations in Titan s atmosphere due to photochemical processes. The methane contained in the dense nitrogen atmosphere is decomposed by solar and thermal radiation, and its content may be replenished from methane lakes or from clathrates. 

Figure 3.13 UK Infrared Telescope situated close to the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii, at an altitude of 4092 m. (A colour reproduction of this figure can be seen in the colour section). (Reproduced with permission by UKIRT)...

SMA Submillimeter Array, large interferometer array operating on the top of Mauna Kea, Hawaii, operating at the millimeter wavelength range that allows high-resolution studies of protostellar environments. 

One of the most dramatic examples of concrete progress in the field of stratospheric chemistry has come from the work of de Zafra, Solomon, Parrish and coworkers, who adopted radio astronomy techniques to the detection of stratospheric free radicals. Three key reactive constituents have been examined CIO emissions at both 204 and 278 GHz from a number of sites in the northern hemisphere, with a rapidly growing seasonal coverage and sufficient time resolution to examine the exceedingly important diurnal behavior of the stratospheric column HO2 at 266 GHz from the Mauna Kea, Hawaii Observatory and H2O2 at 270 GHz, [Pg.356]

Earth-based observations made in 1991 and 1992 made in near-infrared wavelengths with the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope Facility on Mauna Kea, Hawaii showed evidence of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide ices on Triton s surface as well as those of nitrogen and methane. They confirmed the 391°F temperature of Triton s surface and found that there is less than 10% carbon monoxide ice dissolved in the nitrogen ice on Triton s surface. 

We obtained the Galactic center survey with a special purpose infrared camera, which was mounted on the University Hawaii s 61 cm telescope atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii in June 1991. The survey system consists of 25 cm, F/3.S Newtonian telescope and PtSi 512 x 512 infrared camera. The camera uses a Mitsubishi IR CSD, sensitive from 1 to 5 micron. The plate scale is 6.1 X 9.4 arcsec per pixel, giving a field of 40.2 X 52.3 aremin. The filters used were H and K ( central wavdength 1.65 and 2.15 micron respectively). Total field covered in this survey is approximately 3.2 deg in E W X 3.6 deg in N-S directions. The limiting magnitudes of our survey were 12.0 mag at K band and 13.0 mag at H band respectively, however the sensitivities of the concentrated regions are declined by the confusion of stars. 

However, the origin of the water on Mars is still unknown. Since the Earth and Mars have some common features in their history, the water on Mars could have come both from its interior and from comets and asteroids. The huge size of the Martian shield volcanoes, one class of which resembles the shield volcanoes Kilauea and Mauna Kea on Hawaii, suggests that a large proportion of the water was of volcanic origin. 

Rotational spectroscopy and microwave astronomy are the most accurate way to identify a molecule in space but there are two atmospheric windows for infrared astronomy in the region 1-5 im between the H2O and CO2 absorptions in the atmosphere and in the region 8-20 xrn. Identification of small molecules is possible by IR but this places some requirements on the resolution of the telescope and the spacing of rotational and vibrational levels within the molecule. The best IR telescopes, such as the UK Infrared Telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii (Figure 3.13), are dedicated to the 1-30 xm region of the spectrum and have a spatial resolution very close to the diffraction limit at these wavelengths. 

Albarede F (1996) Fligh resolution geochemical stratigraphy of Mauna Kea flows from the Hawaii Scientific Drilling Project core. J Geophys Res 101 11841-11853... 

Running in parallel to spectacular space-based astronomy, optical telescopes and radiotelescopes have progressed in a quite breathtaking manner thanks to the new techniques of interferometry and active and adaptive optics. Telescopes perched on mountain peaks, such as the CFHT (Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope) and Keck on Mauna Kea in Hawaii and the VLT on Cerro Parana in Chile, and radiotelescopes set out like windmills in Puerto Rico, Sologne (in the French Alps), The Netherlands and Spain, gather photons able to cross the layers of the atmosphere without major alteration, whilst spectrographs then dissect the radiation into its finest detail. 

FIGURE 2.7 Beta Pictoris imaged in 1993, using the 2.2 m telescope of the Hawaii University at Mauna Kea. Kalas and Jewitt (1995) demonstrated that the disk is asymmetric, a feature that is often the result of gravitational perturbations from planets, although not thought to be the case in this study. 

Temporal variability. The best examples of temporal change are for tholeiitic lavas from the shield building stage of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii, and for the alkalic shield stage lavas from Tutuila (American Samoa). 

Figure 8. He/" He and SNd in basaltic lavas from Mauna Kea sampled by the Hawaii Scientific Drilling Project (HSDP). Data are from Kurz et al. (1996) and Lassiter et al. (1996). There is a covariation in He and Nd isotopes during the end of the tholeiitic shield-building stage in lavas from Mauna Kea. The temporal trend is similar to that for dated lavas from Mauna Loa (Kurz et al. 1987 Kurz and Kammer 1991), in which MORB-like compositions dominate at the very end of the shieldbuilding stage.

The observations were obtained in 1980 with the spectropolarimeter attached to the 24-in telescope of the University of Hawaii on Mauna Kea. These observations provide useful constraints for the more sophisticated models that are needed for the atmospheres of these planets. Fig. 3 demonstrates the results for Saturn. 

The typical career path for a student interested in telescopy involves pursuing work as an astronomer either in an academic or a government-based observatory such as the National Radio Astronomy Observatory or the Mauna Kea Observatories at the University of Hawaii. Most astronomers who work at universities teach in addition to conducting research. Because jobs for practicing astronomers can be relatively scarce, students may benefit from taking one or more short-term positions such as a paid internship or postdoctoral fellowship to gain experience and contacts in the field before seeking a more permanent appointment. 

Mauna Kea in Hawaii. A total of 36 hexagonal Zerodur mirror segments with a thickness of 75 mm form the primary mirror of 10 m diameter (see Fig. 4.63). 

By applying this model to polarization measurements at 4.76 m from the 3 m infrared telescope at the Mauna Kea observatory in Hawaii, Goguen Sinton (1985) detected three areas of strong emission and polarization. A least squares... 

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