* Astronomy

Keck Observatory's New Planet Imager Delivers First Science

A new device on the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii has delivered its first images, showing a ring of planet-forming dust around a star and, separately, a cool star-like body, called a brown dwarf, lying near to its companion star.
The device, called the vortex coronagraph, was recently installed inside the Near Infrared Camera 2 (NIRC2), the workhorse infrared imaging camera at Keck.
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 First Light of Powerful New MOSFIRE Instrument

Engineers and astronomers are celebrating the much anticipated first light of the MOSFIRE instrument, now installed on the Keck I telescope at W. M. Keck Observatory. MOSFIRE (Multi-Object Spectrometer For Infra-Red Exploration) will vastly increase the data gathering power of what is already the world's most productive ground-based observatory.
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  Powerful New Astronomy Tool Arrives on Mauna Kea

A 10,000-pound package was delivered on Feb. 16 to the W. M. Keck Observatory near the summit of Mauna Kea. Inside is a powerful new scientific instrument that will dramatically increase the cosmic data gathering power of what is already the worlds most productive ground-based observatory.
The new instrument is called MOSFIRE (Multi-Object Spectrometer For Infra-Red Exploration). It is the newest tool to survey the cosmos and help astronomers learn more about star formation, galaxy formation and the early universe. The spectrometer was made possible through funding provided by the National Science Foundation and a generous donation from astronomy benefactors Gordon and Betty Moore.
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On Oct. 9, astronomers at the W. M. Keck Observatory used the Keck II telescope to search for water harboured in the Moon's permanently shadowed craters.
The observations were made as part of the Observatory's participation in NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, mission. At 1:31 and 1:35 a.m. Hawaii Standard Time, two LCROSS impactors collided with the crater Cabeus on the South Pole of the Moon.
Diane Wooden of the NASA Ames Research Centre in Moffett Field, Calif. used Keck II with its Near Infrared Echelle Spectrograph, or NIRSPEC, to analyse the resulting ejecta plume for the chemical signature of water vapour.

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