January 20, 1997

Research Update: Astronomy

By Robert Irion

Black holes, quasars, and the latest spectacular images from the Hubble Space Telescope were among the star attractions last week in Toronto at the semiannual meeting of the American Astronomical Society. UCSC astronomers are taking advantage of their access to the world's largest optical telescopes at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, as the following two talks illustrated.

Keck Telescope spies the likely building blocks of modern galaxies

Acting as the world's most powerful telescopic tandem, the Hubble Space Telescope and the Keck Telescope are starting to unravel the evolutionary histories of galaxies dating back to when the universe was just 10 percent of its current age.

Keck Telescopes find galaxies of normal stars surrounding quasars

Many quasars, the most luminous objects in the universe, are swaddled by galaxies containing ordinary stars that lie at the same distances from earth as the quasars themselves, according to a new study that used the Keck I and Keck II Telescopes.

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