LCO) on Haleakalā.
“Astronomy offers an extensive amount of
STEM, cooperation and leadership in its field,” said Chau. “The challenges to solve and explore really gets you to move forward. The endless amount of life that can be discovered other than where we stand, can be seen through astronomy.”
The young astronomers won first place overall for the state’s Junior Division, the Hawaiian Astronomical Society award, the Broadcom award, and second place for Best In Category for Physics and Astronomy (Junior Division). In 2020, the pair’s observations of the famous SpaceX Tesla launch earned them top awards at science and engineering fairs at both the county and state level. The Maui teens credit Armstrong for mentoring them on multiple research projects.
The centers of galaxies with actively feeding supermassive black holes are already astounding environments. Now, a team of researchers led by a graduate student from the University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy (IfA) has found an even more interesting oddball. Feeding black holes typically increase and decrease in brightness similar to the Kilauea volcano, becoming more or less active over time in unpredictable ways. However, the newly discovered black hole is more like Old Faithful geyser at Yellowstone National Park, erupting repeatedly at predictable times.
Astronomers classify galaxies with unusually bright and variable centers as active galaxies. The active centers can produce much more energy than the combined contribution of all the stars in the host galaxy. The excess energy can be seen at visible, ultraviolet, and X-ray wavelengths. Astrophysicists think the extra emission comes from near the galaxy’s central supermassive black hole, where a swirling disk of g