Free Astronomy Magazine March-April 2018

20 MARCH-APRIL 2018 SPACE CHRONICLES instrument’s first set of commission- ing observations and achieved “first light” with a spectral image of the planetary nebula NGC 7027. “The Keck Observatory continually strives to provide instrumentation that meets the high aspirations of our scientific community and re- sponds to changing scientific needs,” said Keck Observatory Director Hil- ton Lewis. “NIRES is expected to be one of the most efficient single-ob- ject, near-infrared spectrographs on an eight to ten-meter telescope, de- signed to study explosive, deep sky phenomena such as supernovae and gamma ray bursts, a capability that is in high demand.” “The power of NIRES is that it can cover a whole spectral range simul- taneously with one observation,” said Keith Matthews, the instru- Keck Observatory achieves first light with NIRES by Keck Observatory A stronomers at W. M. Keck Observatory have success- fully met a major milestone after capturing the very first science data from Keck Observatory’s newest instrument, the Caltech-built Near- Infrared Echellette Spectrometer (NIRES). The Keck Observatory-Cal- tech NIRES team just completed the T he “first-light” image from NIRES is of NGC 7027, a planetary nebula. The NIRES spectrum shows the near-IR spectrum of this nebula dominated by emission lines of hydrogen and helium. The direct image shows NBC 7027 in the K’ filters at 2.2 microns. [W. M. Keck Observatory]