Gemini staff contributions
On the Horizon
Funding from the National Science Foundation will allow Gemini
to develop a multi-conjugate adaptive optics system at Gemini
North and advance rapid follow-up capabilities for transient
sources. SCORPIO, Gemini’s next-generation instrument, remains
on schedule for its Optical Critical Design Review by the end
of November. The call for the Instrument Upgrade Program
has been postponed until mid-2019. And the future GIRMOS
instrument should ideally position Gemini to take the lead in the
era of multi-messenger astronomy.
Gemini Observatory to Advance Adaptive Optics and
Multi-messenger Astronomy with NSF Award
Gemini recently received a multi-million dollar award from the National Science Foundation
(NSF) to enhance its role in the era of “multi-messenger astronomy” and improve its adap-
tive optics (AO) capabilities. The award funds major software and operational upgrades at
both of the Gemini 8-meter telescopes for rapid follow-up studies of transient sources, as
well as a state-of-the-art multi-conjugate adaptive optics (MCAO) system for wide-field,
high-resolution imaging at the Gemini North telescope on Maunakea in Hawai‘i.
The new funding will be used in part to develop automated systems to trigger follow-up
observations and quickly deliver science-ready data to astronomers through automated
data processing pipelines. “With this funding Gemini will significantly advance multi-
messenger and time-domain, or transient-source, astronomy,” said Anne Kinney, Head of
the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Division at NSF. “We’ve witnessed a surge of as-
tronomical discoveries in areas such as gravitational waves, exotic varieties of stellar ex-
plosions, and collisions within our own Solar System where a full understanding depends
critically upon rapid characterization of the discoveries using ground-based facilities like
Gemini,” Kinney added.
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GeminiFocus
October 2018