University of Hawaiʻi President Emeritus David Lassner and his team—including Vice President for Information Technology Garret Yoshimi and Director for Network Infrastructure Chris Zane—have been awarded the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California . The award recognizes more than 35 years of visionary leadership in connecting Hawaiʻi and the broader Pacific to the global research community.

Transforming science, education

Since establishing the first international internet connection to Australia via Hawaiʻi in 1989, the 东精影业 team has fundamentally transformed global science and education. Their efforts in securing high-capacity networking for the premier astronomical observatories on Maunakea and Haleakal膩 have supported over $1 billion in scientific investment. The data transmitted through these connections contributed directly to two Nobel Prizes in Physics, including discoveries regarding the accelerating expansion of the universe and supermassive black holes.

Beyond these technical milestones, the 东精影业 team鈥檚 work is deeply rooted in a commitment to Pacific Island communities. By expanding ultra-high bandwidth networks, they have ensured that remote islands on the front lines of climate change have equal access to vital global research resources.

“The University of Hawaiʻi‘s geographic position in the middle of the Pacific is only part of the story; what truly makes today’s Pacific Wave (a high-capacity network) connectivity possible is the people,” said Jonah Keough, managing director of Pacific Wave. “David, Garret and Chris understand that networks are built on relationships as much as fiber.”

Connecting through fiber, light

Lassner has compared this modern digital connectivity to traditional Polynesian wayfinding. Having sailed aboard 贬艒办奴濒别ʻ补鈥檚 Worldwide Voyage, Lassner noted that just as navigators connected Pacific peoples using stars, 东精影业 is connecting them through fiber and light.

“To me, that’s what the World Wide Voyage and m膩lama honua (to care for our Earth) stand for鈥攕ustainability, Indigenous-serving education, research and our service to the community,” Lassner said. “It’s an incredible opportunity to do exactly what the University of Hawaiʻi is supposed to be doing.”

The award will be formally presented at CENIC鈥檚 “The Right Connection” conference in Monterey, California, March 31鈥揂pril 1, 2026.

This week鈥檚 东精影业 News Image of the Week is from 东精影业 Maui College faculty member Trenton Niemi.

Niemi shared: “Professor Paul Thornton of 东精影业 Maui College appreciating astronomy at the top of Haleakal膩”

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Researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi (IfA) are helping reshape how scientists study the Sun. The 东精影业-led team has developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool that can map the Sun鈥檚 magnetic field in three dimensions with unprecedented accuracy, supporting research tied to the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) built and managed by the NSF National Solar Observatory (NSO) on Haleakal膩. The team鈥檚 findings were published in the .

“The Sun is the strongest space weather source that can affect everyday life here on Earth, especially now that we rely so much on technology,” said Kai Yang, an IfA postdoctoral researcher who led the work. “The Sun鈥檚 magnetic field drives explosive events like solar flares and coronal mass ejections. This new technique helps us understand what triggers these events and strengthens space weather forecasts, giving us earlier warnings to protect the systems we use every day.”

The Sun鈥檚 magnetic field controls eruptions that can disrupt satellites, power systems and communications on Earth. However, the field is tough to measure, making it difficult to create accurate maps. Instruments can show the way the field tilts, but not whether it points toward us or away from us, like looking at a rope from the side and not knowing which end is closer. Another problem is height. When scientists look at the Sun, they see several layers at the same time, so it鈥檚 difficult to tell how high each magnetic structure actually is. Sunspots make this even trickier because their strong magnetic fields bend the surface downward, creating a dip.

AI-powered insights

IfA researchers partnered with the National Solar Observatory and the High Altitude Observatory of the NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research to build a new machine-learning system that blends real data with the basic laws of physics. Their algorithm, the Haleakal膩 Disambiguation Decoder, relies on a simple rule: magnetic fields form loops and don鈥檛 start or end. From there, the AI can figure out the true direction of the field and estimate the correct height of each layer.

The method has worked well on detailed computer models of the Sun, including calm areas, bright active regions and sunspots. Its accuracy is especially helpful for making sense of the high-resolution images from the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope.

“With this new machine-learning tool, the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope can help scientists build a more accurate 3D map of the Sun鈥檚 magnetic field,” said Yang. “It also reveals related features, like vector electric currents in the solar atmosphere that were previously very hard to measure. Together, this gives us a clearer picture of what drives powerful solar eruptions.”

Clearer Sun insights

With these advances, researchers can see the Sun鈥檚 magnetic landscape more accurately and improve predictions of the solar activity that impacts life on Earth.

Severe budget cuts proposed by the Trump administration to NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF) are raising major concerns within Hawaiʻi鈥檚 astronomy community. Aside from the potential loss of federal funding for the Thirty Meter Telescope, funding reductions could also have wide-ranging implications for the University of Hawaiʻi鈥檚 (IfA), its research and its students. IfA is a globally renowned research center and home to one of the world鈥檚 largest university-based astronomy programs, with observatories on Maunakea and Haleakal膩 that have helped make some of the most remarkable cosmic discoveries ranging from exoplanets to distant galactic phenomena.

东精影业 News sat down with IfA Director Doug Simons to discuss how the proposed cuts may affect Hawaiʻi鈥檚 standing in the global astronomy community.

What鈥檚 at stake moving forward?

Simons: The proposed fiscal year 2026 budgets at NASA and NSF have been cut severely and pretty much uniformly. Almost half of the Science Mission Directorate鈥檚 budget at NASA has been cut, and a comparable 50% or so has been cut at NSF. So for astronomy here in Hawaiʻi, there are a number of facilities that are directly impacted, including 17% cut from the W.M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea and 39% cut in the U.S. portion of the Gemini International observatory. We’re also looking at the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) no longer being funded through the construction queue at NSF as part of this whole process.

What impact could these cuts have on grad students and research efforts at IfA?

Simons: Yes, a large fraction of our graduate program is sponsored by NASA and NSF, so our education program is definitely put at risk by these proposed cuts. The related threat of reduced numbers of observatories means that our research program at IfA is also at risk. It鈥檚 important to realize that a large fraction of observing time at IfA goes to our graduate students and programs involving undergraduates, giving them unique research opportunities compared to most other astronomy graduate programs. So again, I have a lot of concern near and long term about the impacts of these cuts to our research and education program, and associated knock-on effects.

What would the cuts mean for the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) on Haleakal膩, and its role in training 东精影业 astronomy students?

Simons: I’m very concerned about DKIST. They also have a proposed 40% cut, and that’s a brand new, $350+ million state-of-the-art solar telescope, the best ever built, that鈥檚 just out of the “starting blocks.” I honestly don’t know what problem is solved by massive cuts to a brand new observatory like DKIST.

Would you say Hawaiʻi is a global leader in astronomy?

Simons: Hawaiʻi astronomy is number one in the world in terms of science output, and that is absolutely at risk with deep cuts proposed in the NASA and NSF programs. Much of the U.S. northern hemisphere ground based astronomy program is in Hawaiʻi, so those cuts go right to the core of U.S. astronomy research. There are also proposed cuts in Federal research facilities in Chile, so the net effect, if we do not turn this around, will be widespread and lasting. It takes a long time to design, build, fund and operate these observatories and a large part of 21st century astronomy leadership will likely go to Europe/Asia, where budgets for astronomy research remain supportive.

If these cuts move forward, what impact could it have on Hawaiʻi鈥檚 economy, considering astronomy provides local jobs and brings in significant funding?

Simons: The latest (2019) estimate is astronomy provides about $220 million of economic impact statewide, with about half of that on Hawaiʻi Island. Nearly 600 people are employed by the Maunakea Observatories, making Maunakea astronomy one of the largest providers of good-paying STEM jobs on the island. The combined operating budgets for the Maunakea Observatories is $70 million – $80 million annually, with most of those funds being directly injected into the local economy through the salaries of observatory staff. More than $2 million is invested annually by the Maunakea Observatories in education and outreach programs across Hawaiʻi Island. Over a hundred companies help support Hawaiʻi observatories, diversifying economic benefits across a wide range of contractors and professionals. The total number of people directly employed by astronomy is closer to 1,000 including Maui and Oʻahu, where similar economic “multipliers” occur.

东精影业-operated telescopes in partnership with NASA play a leading role in spotting potentially dangerous asteroids. What does the funding picture currently look like for 东精影业鈥檚 planetary defense work?

Simons: I was relieved to see that NASA retained its planetary defense program as a high priority. For IfA, that secures the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) on Maunakea, PanSTARRS, which includes a pair of telescopes on Haleakal膩, and ATLAS. There are now five ATLAS telescopes worldwide, which basically serve as the last stand, if you will, for detecting potential earth impactors. That’s a total of eight telescopes IfA owns/operates that could have been lost had NASA decided that the planetary defense program was not a priority. I’m pleased to say that amongst everything else going on, that survived.

How do you feel about the direction these proposed cuts are taking, especially given your decades of experience in Hawaiʻi astronomy?

Simons: It is extremely disappointing, particularly because I’ve watched the evolution of Hawaiʻi astronomy throughout most of my career, and the net effect of these recent decisions, which again are completely self-inflicted, is to diminish our ability to answer some of the most fundamental questions in science. It doesn’t have to be that way. We are decisions away from being able to stop this, but if we don’t, we’re looking at widespread damage to long-standing investments of broad state, national and international benefit.

A team at the University of Hawaiʻi鈥檚 Institute for Astronomy (IfA) has uncovered a dazzling new kind of cosmic explosion, more energetic than anything seen before. The team named these rare events “extreme nuclear transients” (ENTs), which occur when massive stars—at least three times the mass of our Sun—are shredded by supermassive black holes. The team’s findings were recently published in .

“We鈥檝e observed stars getting ripped apart as tidal disruption events for over a decade, but these ENTs are different beasts, reaching brightnesses nearly 10 times greater than what we typically see,” said Jason Hinkle, who led the study as the final piece of his doctoral research at IfA. “Not only are ENTs far brighter than normal tidal disruption events, but they remain luminous for years, far surpassing the energy output of even the brightest known supernova explosions.”

ENTs are millions of times rarer than supernovae. But their extreme brightness means they can be seen even in extremely distant galaxies, giving scientists a new way to study black holes in the early universe.

Discovery through data

One of the ENTs studied in this work, named Gaia18cdj, released 25 times more energy than the most powerful supernova on record. In just one year, it radiated energy equal to the lifetime output of 100 Suns. Most supernovae, in comparison, produce only one Sun鈥檚 lifetime output over a similar timescale.

Hinkle first spotted the strange flares while combing through publicly available data from the Gaia space telescope. Unlike more common cosmic explosions that fade over several weeks, ENTs glow steadily for years.

“Gaia observations don鈥檛 tell you what a transient is, just that something changed in how bright it appears to us,” said Hinkle. “But when I saw these smooth, long-lived flares from the centers of distant galaxies, I knew we were looking at something unusual.”

Rare cosmic events

Hinkle used years of observations from 东精影业鈥檚 Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System with telescopes on Haleakal膩 and Mauna Loa, the W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, and other telescopes on and orbiting the Earth to characterize these events. Researchers confirmed these weren鈥檛 supernovae or normal black hole activity. Instead, ENTs appear to be caused by a smoother, more drawn-out process, stars multiple times as massive as our Sun being slowly consumed by black holes.

“ENTs provide a valuable new tool for studying massive black holes in distant galaxies,” said Benjamin Shappee, an associate professor at IfA who co-authored the study. “Because they’re so bright, we can see them across vast cosmic distances—and in astronomy, looking far away means looking back in time. By observing these prolonged flares, we gain insights into black hole growth when the universe was half its current age and galaxies were busy places鈥攆orming stars and feeding their supermassive black holes 10 times more vigorously than they do today.”

More ENTs

Astronomers hope to spot many more ENTs, with each offering a glimpse into the powerful forces shaping galaxies across cosmic time. Future observatories such as the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and 狈础厂础鈥檚 Roman Space Telescope could uncover many more of these spectacular events, revolutionizing our understanding of black hole activity in the distant, early universe.

“These ENTs don鈥檛 just mark the dramatic end of a massive star鈥檚 life. They illuminate the processes responsible for growing the largest black holes in the universe,” said Hinkle.

A University of Hawaiʻi-operated telescope has discovered a fairly large asteroid that may impact the Earth. The historic asteroid, 2024 YR4, was first detected by 东精影业鈥檚 (ATLAS) in December 2024 as it flew past the Earth. Estimated to be the size of a 20-story building, the asteroid is currently 27 million miles away and returns to Earth鈥檚 vicinity every 4 years. While it is expected to safely pass Earth in 2028, scientists warn that a collision in December 2032 remains a possibility.

狈础厂础鈥檚 estimates a 1% chance that asteroid 2024 YR4 could collide with Earth in 2032, based on current observations. Throughout the coming months, astronomers will closely monitor the 180-foot (55-meter)-wide object to refine its orbit and improve predictions of its future trajectory. No asteroid of this size has ever reached a 1% impact probability in the past two decades of near-Earth object tracking, making 2024 YR4 a rare and closely watched case.

While the odds of impact remain low, history has shown that even small asteroids can cause significant destruction. In 2013, a 65-foot (20-meter) asteroid exploded over Russia, unleashing a shock wave that shattered windows in 7,200 buildings across six cities. More than a century earlier, in 1908, an asteroid roughly the size of 2024 YR4 detonated over Tunguska, Siberia, flattening trees across nearly 1,000 square miles. Though scientists estimate a 99% chance that 2024 YR4 will safely miss Earth in 2032, its potential for impact—especially over populated areas—has drawn the close attention of the planetary defense community.

“Tiny asteroids do hit the Earth all the time, disintegrating in the atmosphere as fireballs; fortunately small ones cause little damage on the ground,” said Larry Denneau, an astronomer at 东精影业 (IfA) and co-principal investigator at ATLAS. “Larger asteroids can cause much more damage, but they impact the Earth much less frequently. There are still many large ones out there that we haven鈥檛 found yet, which is why we are continuously monitoring the whole sky to ensure that we stay ahead of potential threats.”

Hawaiʻi telescopes monitoring

Observatories on Maunakea and Haleakal膩 are actively tracking 2024 YR4 to refine its trajectory. In 2022, 东精影业 was instrumental in helping track 狈础厂础鈥檚 Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) target asteroid system, the first successful asteroid deflection mission, proving that with enough time, an asteroid鈥檚 path can be altered to protect Earth.

• Related 东精影业 News story: 东精影业 astronomers capture historic NASA spacecraft, asteroid collisions, September 27, 2022

鈥�&濒诲辩耻辞;Hawaiʻi鈥檚 telescopes are some of the most important tools for planetary defense,” said Doug Simons, director at IfA. “Thanks to our prime location and advanced technology, we can spot, track, and study asteroids with incredible accuracy. That gives scientists the time they need to evaluate potential threats and figure out the best ways to respond.”

Planetary defense

东精影业 IfA plays a central role in planetary defense, operating some of the world鈥檚 most advanced asteroid-tracking telescopes. ATLAS, funded by NASA, is a four-telescope system located in Hawaiʻi, atop Haleakal膩 and Maunaloa, Chile and South Africa. It specializes in detecting asteroids on very close approaches to Earth, discovering hundreds of near-Earth objects (NEOs) each year.

IfA also operates the or Pan-STARRS on Haleakal膩, the world’s leading NEO discovery telescope, which is equipped to detect potentially dangerous asteroids while they are still far from Earth. As scientists continue to assess the risk posed by this asteroid, Pan-STARRS remains actively engaged in tracking its movements and refining its projected trajectory. Each year, the ground-based telescope response system on Maui tracks more than half of the near-Earth objects larger than 140 meters detected globally.

On Maunakea, two 东精影业-operated telescopes are also serving as key components of 狈础厂础鈥檚 planetary defense system in monitoring 2024 YR4. The or IRTF, a 3.2-meter NASA-funded observatory, specializes in studying near-Earth objects NEOs to evaluate potential impact risks. Meanwhile, the 东精影业88 telescope aids in forecasting the future trajectories of these space bodies.

The search for NEOs is funded by 狈础厂础鈥檚 through its .

A group of astronomers using three telescopes in Hawaiʻi have discovered a small, very old star system orbiting around our galaxy. The star system, named Ursa Major III/ UNIONS 1 or UMa3/U1, is incredibly faint and has the least mass of any Milky Way satellite ever found. It might also be one of the most dark matter-dominated systems known.

UMa3/U1 is made up of about 60 stars, all more than 10 billion years old, held together by their own gravity, and possibly even by dark matter. The team of researchers leading the study used the and (CFHT) on Maunakea and the University of Hawaiʻi (IfA) or Pan-STARRS on Haleakal膩.

“This important discovery of the darkest dwarf galaxy was only possible with Pan-STARRS鈥� ongoing effort to systematically survey the sky over and over again,” said Ken Chambers, IfA astronomer and principal investigator of Pan-STARRS. “We do this primarily to find potentially hazardous near Earth asteroids, but we also use the data to build up an ever deeper image of the universe and by combining this data with the other participating UNIONS (Ultraviolet Near Infrared Optical Northern Survey) surveys, we enable many kinds of discoveries from the solar system to the edge of the visible universe.”

Findings were published in by astronomers from the University of Victoria and Yale University.

Celestial mystery

Located in the Ursa Major constellation, UMa3/U1 is about 30,000 light-years from the Sun. It weighs about 16 times more than the Sun, however it’s still much lighter than the smallest known suspected dwarf galaxy. Scientists first found the star system using data from the UNIONS survey conducted by Pan-STARRS and CFHT.

For a more detailed analysis, they turned to the Keck Observatory’s Deep Imaging Multi-Object Spectrograph, confirming UMa3/U1 is a tightly bound system, either a dwarf galaxy or a star cluster.

Further observations are required to determine if this star system is dominated by dark matter, which would support a key prediction in the leading theory of the universe’s origin. This theory suggests that during the formation of galaxies like the Milky Way, they attracted hundreds of satellite star systems through gravitational pull, which continue to orbit galaxies to this day.

Astronomers from the University of Hawaiʻi (IfA) have uncovered the closest recorded occurrence of a star being torn apart by a supermassive black hole (SMBH). Using the All-Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (ASAS-SN) system, on February 22, 2023,the team detected a sudden surge in brightness followed by a rapid dimming in the galaxy NGC 3799, located about 160 million light-years from Earth.

“While black holes destroying stars have been seen before, this is the first one we have seen this close using visible light,” said Willem Hoogendam, an IfA graduate student who co-led the research. “This could give us a much better understanding of how SMBHs grow and collect material around them.”

Follow-up observations were taken with IfA鈥檚 (ATLAS) telescopes on Maunaloa and Haleakal膩, on Maunakea, and other ground- and space-based observatories. Hoogendam, working with fellow IfA grad student Jason Hinkle and faculty advisor Ben Shappee, analyzed these data to determine that the burst of brightness was caused by a Tidal Disruption Event (TDE). TDEs happen when a star gets too close to a SMBH and is torn apart by its strong gravitational force, with the black hole devouring the star’s mass. Research findings will be published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

“This discovery suggests that black holes ripping stars apart nearby could be more common than previously thought—we just haven鈥檛 witnessed it happening frequently,” said Hoogendam.

Rare find

The intense brightness produced by the star鈥檚 mass feeding the black hole creates a luminous flare, which all-sky surveys like ASAS-SN can observe. While such events have been detected far away from Earth, finding one relatively close by is rare. ASASSN-23bd, as the event is known, is a remarkable nearby TDE, making it an excellent subject for further study.

The astronomers found that ASASSN-23bd was unlike many other TDEs they had observed before:

• It emitted much less energy than previous TDEs
• It was the closest TDE discovered using visible light
• Its change in brightness happened about twice as fast as most TDEs
• ASASSN-23bd is in a unique category of objects known as low luminosity and Fast TDEs
• luminosity and Fast TDEs

The offers college students an opportunity to gain paid summer work experience at an observatory, company or science/technical facility on Hawaiʻi Island, Maui or University of California, Santa Cruz while earning course credit at . The internship program is led by the Institute for Scientist and Engineer Educators (ISEE) at University of California Observatories, in partnership with the University of Hawaiʻi.

As a part of the Akamai Workforce Initiative, the internship program seeks to develop a skilled STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) workforce to meet the needs of Hawaiʻi鈥檚 growing high-tech industry. .

More than 500 college students have participated in the internship program since it launched in 2003. At least 250 alumni now hold careers in science and technology.

“We are committed to provide empowering opportunities through Akamai to our Hawaiʻi students so they are ready for careers within the high-tech sector,” said Doug Simons, executive director at the (IfA). “The state鈥檚 astronomy sector is one economic artery that provides employment for hundreds of local people and is an example of how Hawaiʻi can further diversify its economy through innovation.”

The 8-week internship will run from June 3 to August 10, 2024. Interns will be paid a $4,400 stipend, provided housing (if needed), and travel support to their internship sites.

The Akamai Workforce Initiative is led by ISEE at the University of California Observatories in partnership with 东精影业 IfA and 东精影业 Hilo.

Internship provides STEM work experience

Upon acceptance into the program, Akamai interns are carefully matched with a project and a mentor within their field, who will supervise the intern throughout the summer. All Akamai interns complete a one-week intensive preparatory course at 东精影业 Hilo, where they gain the skills needed to be successful in the workplace and meet other interns along with Akamai staff and mentors. Mentors help interns gain work experience and build a network that will help launch their STEM careers. The interns are coached on communication skills, and will present their projects at the end of summer at a public symposium.

Local students get local STEM jobs

Since its inception in 2003, more than 500 college students have participated in the Akamai Internship Program and at least 125 alumni are working in Hawaiʻi and contributing to the local STEM workforce. Akamai accepts college students from Hawaiʻi (80% graduated from a Hawaiʻi high school or were born in Hawaiʻi), and a key objective is to increase the participation of underrepresented and underserved populations in STEM. Akamai Workforce Initiative alumni are 37% women, 23% Native Hawaiian and 47% underrepresented minorities.

“I participated in Akamai in the Summer of 2015 after my junior year at 东精影业 M膩noa. Having the internship at the Canada-France-Hawaiʻi Telescope (CFHT) provided key skills and knowledge that led to my position at Pearl Harbor upon graduation,” said Raycen Wong, mechanical engineer at CFHT. “I鈥檓 from Hilo and having a position in my field on Hawaiʻi Island, in particular at CFHT, became a longterm career goal due to the experiences I had as an Akamai intern.”

Placements at telescopes and tech companies

Interns in recent years have been placed at many Hawaiʻi Island firms including Big Island Abalone Farm, Canada-France-Hawaiʻi Telescope, Cyanotech, Hawaiʻi Electric Light Company, Gemini North Observatory, Liquid Robotics, Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaiʻi Authority, Smithsonian Submillimeter Array, Academia Sinica Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Subaru Telescope, IfA and W. M. Keck Observatory.

Maui placements include Air Force Research Laboratory, Boeing, Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, HNu Photonics, KBR, Maui High Performance Computing Center, Pacific Disaster Center, Privateer Space and IfA.

Placements are also available at University of California Observatories on the campus of UC Santa Cruz, and the Laboratory for Adaptive Optics and astronomical instrumentation projects.

Mentoring to ensure student success

The Akamai Program is a community partnership that offers an exceptional mentoring experience for students. Each year more than 50 engineers and scientists from telescopes and tech companies generate ideas for intern projects that will make a real contribution to their work and will provide a challenging educational experience for the intern. Many mentors participate in the Akamai Mentor Workshop, where they plan how to provide an experience that will help launch interns into a successful career in STEM.

“As a previous intern, I can truly speak to the pivotal experience that the Akamai Internship Program provided for me,” said Heather Kaluna, an associate professor of who now manages the internship program at Akamai. “I am happy to be able to give back and support similar experiences for other Hawaiʻi-based students.”

Akamai Funders

This year the Akamai Internship Program is funded by Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, National Science Foundation (through the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, Gemini Observatory, Event Horizon Telescope, Slicer Combined with Array of Lenslets for Exoplanet Spectroscopy).

For more information go to the website.

Observing billions of galaxies across more than a third of the sky and building a 3D map of the universe are all part of the Euclid mission that the European Space Agency launched with its Euclid satellite from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Euclid鈥檚 dataset is getting a big helping hand from observations taken at three observatories in Hawaiʻi.

The Euclid satellite mission will spend more than six years in space and involve more than 2,000 scientists, including astronomers in Hawaiʻi. Unlike the James Webb Space Telescope, which observes a tiny portion of the universe in great detail, Euclid will survey a large portion of the sky, to see a massive section of the universe.

Prior to Euclid鈥檚 launch, the work of creating the map began in Hawaiʻi through the project, an ambitious imaging survey of the northern sky in the optical and near-infrared conducted by three Hawaiʻi-based telescopes since 2017: the Canada-France-Hawaiʻi Telescope (CFHT), Japan鈥檚 Subaru Telescope on Maunakea, and the University of Hawaiʻi (IfA) Pan-STARRS telescope on Haleakalā, Maui.

UNIONS is co-led by Jean-Charles Cuillandre of CEA Saclay/Universit茅 Paris-Saclay, along with Ken Chambers at IfA, Alan McConnachie at Dominion Astrophysical Observatory (DAO) in Canada, Oguri Masamune at Chiba University in Japan, and Mike Hudson at the University of Waterloo in Canada.

“The superb observing conditions in Hawaiʻi led to the unprecedented collection of galaxies over a very large area of the sky with each telescope playing a critical role by adding different filters or colors to the Euclid data,” said Cuillandre, a former CFHT staff astronomer. “While a critical part of the original motivation to obtain the UNIONS data was the Euclid mission, the data will have an impact extending far beyond the space mission.”

The IfA team is especially interested in using this data to measure the parameters that characterize the properties of the universe.

“The Euclid mission will provide a next generation measurement of these characteristics, and we may discover we have made a mistake or series of small mistakes along the way, or we may find that dark energy is more complicated than in Einstein’s formulation,” said Chambers. “Or there might be something else, some new aspect of the universe that we are presently unaware of.”

Hawaiʻi adds color

By observing more than one-third of the observable sky outside the Milky Way, Euclid will image billions of targets out to a distance of 10 billion light years. Astronomers estimate the distances to these galaxies—and thus convert 2D images to a 3D map of the universe—using their observed brightness in different color filters. The more filters are used, the better the distance estimate. But Euclid has only four filters—one that spans most of what we see as visible light, and three that cover infrared wavelengths, beyond what our eyes can see.

The Hawaiʻi telescopes will add observations in five visible-light filters, spanning the rainbow from the violet to far-red. In other words, the three Hawaiʻi telescopes turn the black and white 2D images from Euclid into a full color, 3D map of the universe. Because Euclid is mapping such a huge swath of sky, and ground-based telescopes have different capabilities, multiple observatories have to contribute to provide all the data.

“The idea for one filter from space and additional filters from ground-based telescopes was the Euclid plan from the beginning. Subaru observations add far-red and green, Pan-STARRS has been observing the sky for years searching for asteroids allowing a depth of red data, and CFHT adds blue, enhancing the one filter images that Euclid will produce,” said Professor Satoshi Miyazaki, director of Subaru Telescope. “UNIONS is a consortium of telescopes in Hawaiʻi, extending broader than just Euclid. UNIONS scientists are also sharing data to conduct research collaborations based on Hawaiʻi.”

Gravitational lensing

“Ultimately, data from the Hawaiʻi telescopes—CFHT, Subaru, and Pan-STARRS—will turn the images into a three-dimensional map of our Universe.”

Dark matter does not emit light like the more familiar planets, stars and galaxies. However, dark matter has gravity and can be detected by observing large clusters of galaxies. In some cases, the immense gravity of a galaxy or cluster of galaxies can bend light from an object behind it, known as gravitational lensing. Ground-based observations will assist astronomers working on the Euclid gravitational lensing project.

“I have worked on the Euclid mission for 12 years and it is very satisfying to see the mission launch,” said Jean-Gabriel Cuby, CFHT executive director and Euclid board member. “Much like with the James Webb Space Telescope, Euclid will surprise us and lead to insights we do not fully anticipate. Insights enabled by the efforts of the teams at CFHT, Subaru and Pan-STARRS.”

The first images from the Euclid mission are expected in around two months. Euclid will build up a large archive of unique data, unprecedented by volume for a space-based mission, enabling research over all disciplines in astronomy. The data will be archived at the Canadian Astronomy Data Center (CADC) and accessible to astronomers around the world. CADC will also provide color information based on the observations from the Hawaiʻi based telescopes.

“The Euclid images will be beautiful to look at, above and beyond the considerable scientific value of the data. I’m looking forward to seeing them,” said Stephen Gwyn, science data specialist at the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre. “Ultimately, data from the Hawaiʻi telescopes—CFHT, Subaru, and Pan-STARRS—will turn the images into a three-dimensional map of our Universe.”