We are deeply saddened to acknowledge the loss of
Michael J Thompson. He was a scientist, Director, mentor, colleague, collaborator, and friend. A very thoughtful and kind human being. All in HAO, and many of our colleagues around the world, are shocked at Michael’s sudden passing. Our most sincere sympathy and thoughts are with Michael’s wife Kate, son Robin, and their friends at this time.
—Read tributes and remembrances from Michael’s colleagues across the organization and around the world.
—Link to Daily Camera Article.
On October 6th, the MLSO staff participated in AstroDay 2018, an educational outreach event coordinated by the Mauna Kea Observatories. 3,000 people attended. This was the second occurrence of this event, located in Kailua-Kona, on the west side of Hawaii Island.
Life imitates art, sometimes remarkably well... A recent paper has announced the discovery of an exoplanet around the nearby star 40 Eridani, which had previously been identified as the host star of Vulcan, the fictional home world of Star Trek’s cultural icon, Mr. Spock.
In 1844 Schwabe discovered that the number of sunspots increased and decreased over a period of about 11 years, that variation became known as the sunspot cycle.
Solar irradiance models indicate that irradiance variations are dominated by changes in disk-coverage of magnetic structures, whose brightness is thought to be determined by their size and average magnetic flux density.
The nighttime mesopause, marking the boundary of mesosphere and thermosphere and having the coldest atmospheric temperature, is formed mainly by the combination of radiative cooling by CO2, and the adiabatic flow in the Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere.
View videos of past colloquia