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Image courtesy of Laurie Hatch ©

Keck Observatory - Mauna Kea, Hawaii

Our primary location for observing the SgrA* and the environs of the central galactic region is at the Keck Observatory on the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. For over two decades we've been using the 10-m Keck I and Keck II telescopes, mapping the orbits and other properties of objects with in 1 parsec of the Galactic center. Our science have greately benefitted from the Adaptive Optics (AO) the Keck telescopes have been equipt with since year 2000 ( P.L. Wizinowich et al. 2000), which allows a telescope to reach its diffraction limit (i.e. the telescope's 'full potential') and produce high resolution images. We predominantly use the OSIRIS (a diffraction limited integral infrared spectrograph) and the near IR imager NIRC2 at Keck II to acheive our high-resolution images. Both the NIRC2 and OSIRIS instruments were co-developed/built/designed by the UCLA IR-Laboratory.

Artist's photo illustration. Courtesy TMT International Observatory ©

TMT - The future 30 meter telescope at the Mauna Kea Summit

The GCG members will have access to the future 30m telescope, currently being built and expected to go online 2022. UCLA's Division of Astronomy is playing an active role in its development and design; GCG's P.I. Prof. Andrea Ghez serves on the TMT science advisory committee, and Prof. James Larkin is the P.I. of IRIS , which a first generation near-infrared (0.85-2.5 μm) instrument designed to sample the diffraction limit of the TMT.
"The 30-meter aperture permits the telescope to focus more sharply than smaller telescopes by using the power of diffraction of light. The large aperture also collects more light than smaller scopes, allowing images of fainter objects. TMT will therefore reach further and see more clearly than previous telescopes by a factor of 10 to 100 depending on the observation." Read more at TMT.org

ADDITIONAL TELESCOPES THAT WE USE

Image courtesy of NRAO/AUI ©

VLA - Very Large Array Radio Telescope

The region around SgrA* strongly emitts radiation from moving gas and dust at radio frequencies and the GCG memembers use the Very Large Array (VLA) for these studies. The VLA is one of the world's foremost astronomical radio observatories, and consists of 27 radio antennas organized in a Y-shaped configuration located fifty miles west of Socorro, New Mexico. Each antenna is 25 meters in diameter and when the data from all antennas is combined electronically it produces a resolution of a combined antenna with a diameter of 36km (22 miles) equivalent to the sensitivity of a dish 130 meters (422 feet) in diameter. Read more VLA.

Image credit: NASA/HUBBLE ©

HUBBLE Space Telescope

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope was launched April 24, 1990, on the space shuttle Discovery from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Hubble has made more than 1.2 million observations since its mission began in 1990. Write some more interesting text. Read more about Hubble.

Image credit: NASA/USRA ©

SOFIA - Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy

The SOFIA aircraft is a Boeing 747SP and is a joint U.S. and German project carrying a 2.5 meter infrared airborne telescope. SOFIA is designed to make sensitive infrared measurements of a wide range of astronomical objects, inlcuding the Galactic center. It flies at and above 12.5 km, where the telescope collects radiation in the wavelength range from 0.3 micrometers to 1.6 millimeters. UCLA has had a significant and diverse role in SOFIA development and operations; GCG co-founder Prof. Eric Becklin has been a Chief Scientist from 1996 and GCG co-founder Prof. Mark Morris was a member of the CASIMIR instrument development. The UCLA Infrared Laboratory developed and design FLITECAM, a SOFIA first-light instrument that is used for telescope testing and scientific research.

Image Credit: NASA/CXC/SAOlink ©

CHANDRA - and other x-ray telescopes

GCG astronomers are using the X-ray telescope CHANDRA to detect the presence and to study high-energy particles near the SgrA*, also an evidence of the precence of the supermassive black hole in our Galactic center. Chandra X-ray Observatory is operateded by NASA and is especially designed to detect X-ray emission from very hot regions of the Universe including matter around black holes. Chandra orbits up to an altitude of 139,000 km around Earth.

Image Credit: SPITZER/CalTech ©

SPITZER -

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope was launched on August 25, 2003 from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Base. Drifting in a unique Earth-trailing orbit around the Sun, Spitzer sees an optically invisible universe dominated by dust and stars. Write more ... Read more about Spitzer.

Other Telescopes

In addition to the above metioned telescopes the GCG astronomy researchers also use space telescopes such as ......