Category Archives: Astronomy

In astronomy circles, Monte Sereno resident Sandra Faber is a big deal; She was awarded the National Medal of Science by President Barack Obama in 2013 and last monthin recognition of her lifes workit was announced that Faber is the 2017 Gruber Foundation Cosmology Prize winner.

The prize comes with a $500,000 cash award and a gold medal that Faber will receive this fall.

Faber is a retired but still working UC-Santa Cruz astronomy professor whose work really started when she was a little girl peering at the stars through her fathers binoculars.

Shes spent her life researching the formation of galaxies and the evolution of the universe.

The origin of galaxies is one of the fundamental questions of astronomy and thats what Ive been studying, Faber said. The good news is that we now understand where galaxies come from.

In 1984, Faber co-authored an article that outlined the process.

The hypothesis is to go back a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a second after the Big Bang, when the temperature was a billion. billion, billion degrees, Faber said. At that time, physics was different and there was a new kind of gravity in the universe that made the universe expand faster than the speed of light.

The theory is called inflation, Faber said.

When the universe inflated, it generated small-density fluctuations that acted as seeds for normal gravity, Faber said. That drew matter in around them, creating lumps that were really more like clouds of gas. The gas made stars, and those are the galaxies we see.

Although astronomy wont put a chicken in the pot or a car in the garage, Faber says its important because it tells us where we came from, who we are and provides a prediction of our cosmic future.

Earths cosmic future is fabulous, Faber said.

Weve been given the gift of a billion years of cosmic time, and we should not screw it up, she said. But at the rate were using up our planets natural resources and fouling our own nest means were not going to last a billion years.

Which explains why she has taken to public speaking on the topic of Cosmic Knowledge and the Future of the Human Race.

Im still looking for my voice, she said. Its hard because its a message nobody wants to hear.

To hear Fabers message, visit youtube.com and input Sandra Faber into the search bar. Several speeches are posted there, including a TEDx Los Gatos talk.

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South Bay astronomer wins $500000 prize - Milpitas Post

NASAs Kepler space telescope team has identified 219 new planet candidates, 10 of which are near-Earth size and in the habitable zone of their star. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Scientists have published a catalog of exoplanet discoveries made by NASAs Kepler space telescope, identifying 219 previously-unknown planet candidates circling stars elsewhere in the galaxy, including 10 would-be worlds that appear to be about the same size of Earth with temperatures potentially hospitable for life.

Culling data collected during the first four years of Keplers mission, researchers used computers to pick out and analyse signals from stars that could be have caused by nearby planets. Automated software identified the detections most likely to be real worlds, according to Susan Thompson, a Kepler research scientist at the SETI Institute and NASAs Ames Research Center who led the cataloging effort.

This is the last search that we performed, and we used our most improved techniques, and with that we found 4,034 candidates, which include 10 new terrestrial-sized candidates in the habitable zone of their star, Thompson said.

Follow-up observations have, so far, confirmed 2,335 of the more than 4,000 candidate worlds discovered by Kepler are real. The 10 new Earth-sized exoplanet candidates identified by Kepler scientists bring the missions total haul to 49 likely worlds about the same size as our home planet that could have the right temperature to harbour liquid water, Thompson said.

Thirty of the 49 Earth-sized planets have been verified.

This new result presented today has implications for understanding the frequency of different types of planets in our galaxy, and helps us to advance our knowledge of of how planets are formed, said Mario Perez, Kepler program scientist at NASA Headquarters.

The four years of data covered in the exoplanet catalog come from Keplers observations of around 200,000 stars in the constellation Cygnus. Using a 37-inch (95-centimetre) telescope and a unique wide-angle 95-megapixel camera, Kepler looked for subtle dips in the brightness of stars in a predetermined patch of sky beginning soon after its 2009 launch on a Delta 2 rocket.

The brightness fluctuations if they occur in regular patterns could be caused by a planet transiting in front of the star, blotting out a tiny fraction of its light. Sophisticated software written specifically for the Kepler mission was tasked with rooting out false positives that could be caused by starquakes or other natural phenomena.

Thompson said scientists injected simulated transits and measured how often Kepler and its data-crunching computers missed a planet. The catalog also accounted for noise in Keplers data archive that software could have mistaken for a planet.

That is how scientists arrived at the 4,034 planet candidates from Keplers four-year observing campaign in the constellation Cygnus. Subsequent detections from other telescopes, in space or on the ground, have verified 2,335 of them to date.

These are planets where there is no question at all that that signal is coming from an exoplanet, Thompson said.

In the case of the exoplanet candidates, there is still some room for doubt whether that signal is coming from a planet, she said. It still could be coming from other astrophysical signals.

Several of the newly-discovered planet candidates orbit G dwarf stars like our sun.Thompson singled out one exoplanet candidate named KOI-7711, which is about 1.3 times the size of Earth and orbits its star every 302 days.

She said KOI-7711 gets approximately the same amount of heat that we get from our own star.

However, theres a lot we dont know about this planet, and as a result, its hard to say whether its really an Earth twin, Thompson said Monday. We need to know more about its atmosphere, whether theres water on the planet.

Alien astronomers looking into our solar system through a distant telescope could be tricked into assuming more than one planet was hospitable to life.

I always like to remind people that it looks like there are three planets in our habitable zone Venus, Earth and Mars and Id only really want to live on one of them, Thompson said.

Keplers updated exoplanet listing will help astronomers estimate how common rocky, potentially habitable planets are in our galaxy.

For M dwarfs, which are small stars that make up 75 percent of the stars, in the galaxy, we know that one out of every four of them has a planet that is small and is in the habitable zone, said Courtney Dressing, a NASA Sagan Fellow at the California Institute of Technology.

Dressing said scientists still trying to determine the ubiquity of Earth-sized planets around sun-like stars, one of the chief goals of the Kepler mission. But the catalog released this week will arm scientists with better data to answer that question.

One thing thats important for us is are we alone? Perez said Monday. And maybe Kepler today has told us indirectly although we dont have confirmation that we are probably not alone.

Statistics from the Kepler planet catalog also suggest small planets fall into two families, said Benjamin Fulton, a doctoral candidate at the University of Hawaii in Manoa.

One grouping of planets ranges from smaller than Earth to less than twice the size of Earth, and another set of planets found by Kepler measure up to four times Earths diameter. There are relatively few worlds in between, Fulton said.

Most of the planets in the first group may be akin to the Earth with rocky surfaces and little to no atmospheres, Fulton said. Planets in the second group are probably more like cousins of Neptunes with thick atmospheres and no surface to speak of.

Astronomers turned to the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii to measure the sizes of approximately 1,300 stars known to have planets. The data yielded better estimates of the planets dimensions.

Scientists believe the delineation between super-Earths and mini-Neptunes stems from the way the planets form. Some worlds suck in more hydrogen and helium, growing thick, deep atmospheres, while others develop comparatively thin atmospheres that can be blown away by stellar winds and heat.

This result has significant implications for the search for life, Fulton said. Approximately half of the planets that we know are so common have no solid surface, or a surface deep beneath the crushing weight of a thick atmosphere, and these would not be nice places to live.

Our result sharpens up the dividing line between potentially habitable planets, and those that are inhospitable to life as we know it, he said.

Keplers mission has been plagued by the failure of two of the observatorys four reaction wheels, spinning gyro-like mechanisms that kept the telescope steadily pointed at the missions star field in the constellation Cygnus.

With the loss of Keplers second reaction wheel in 2013, the telescope could no longer meet the missions original pointing requirements.

Engineers found a way to harness the pressure of photons of sunlight by positioning the spacecraft to prevent solar radiation from slowly pointing the telescope away from its astronomical targets. Although solar pressure exerts very low forces on spacecraft, the constant bombardment of solar photons can alter the orientation of satellites.

Controllers can eliminate the effects of solar pressure by balancing Kepler against the stream of sunlight, similar to balancing a pencil on a finger. The telescope cannot detect the faint signatures of planets without stable pointing.

Kepler orbits the sun at roughly the same distance as Earth. NASA calls telescopes current observing program the K2 mission.

Keeping Kepler balanced means it must be pointed in the ecliptic plane, or the plane where all the solar systems planets orbit the sun. The mitigation against solar pressure means Kepler can only look at a narrow band of stars, shifting its 100-square-degree field-of-view every two or three months to avoid pointing its sensitive camera at bright sunlight.

The new observing method means Kepler is now best-suited to finding exoplanets located very close to their host stars.

Kepler continues searching for planets, but officials expect it to run out of fuel some time next year.

The spacecraft has about 10 percent of its hydrazine fuel supply remaining, according to Jessie Dotson, the K2 missions project scientist at Ames.

We think the limiting factor is probably going to be the fuel, Dotson said.

NASAs next planet-hunting mission, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral in March 2018 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. TESS will survey the entire sky to look for exoplanet signatures around nearby, bright stars.

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Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.

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Updated Kepler catalog contains 219 new exoplanet candidates - Astronomy Now Online

The Starmus Festival is now in full swing in Trondheim, Norway, with artists, scientists, and other thinkers gathered around topics relating to space exploration and astronomy. Already, Stephen Hawking has made headlines there for suggesting that humans need to colonize Mars and the Moon ASAP, or move on to Alpha Centauri.

But on Wednesday, some heavy criticism began to emerge on Twitter that the famous festival is heavily skewed towards male panelistscriticism that became louder after Chris Pissardes, a Nobel-winning economist, suggested from the stage that he trusts Siri more when it has a "male" voice, a comment that can be heard in this video.

In a Q&A with the audience, astronomer scientist Jill Tarter got up and took the panelists to task for "piss[ing] off half the world's population," singling out Neil deGrasse Tyson for not stopping the negative comments. (At that point, deGrasse Tyson can be heard speaking up.)

Some high-profile attendees, including astrobiologist Sara Seager and physicist Jim Al-Khalili, who last year won the festival's Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication, said on Twitter that they'd left as a result.

"Starmus is a unique festival of science and music," Al-Khalili wrote me in an email. "Last year, [we] all acknowledged that there was a marked lack of women invited speakers and to a large extent this was addressed this year." At this year's festival, he continued, he heard excellent talks from Seager, Nobel laureate May-Britt Moser, and other female speakers.

Read More: Machine Learning Reveals Systematic Sexism in Astronomy

"My criticism on Twitter referred to a particular comment by a male panellist who made a highly sexist remark that was not picked up by moderator Larry King and should have been," Al-Khalili said, calling it "offensive to many."

Representatives from Starmus could not immediately be reached for comment.

Ellinor Alseth, a PhD student at the University of Exeter, is originally from Trondheim and attended the Starmus festival for the first time this year. After Tarter called out the panelist, Alseth sent her a tweet thanking her as a "young female scientist."

I phoned Alseth in Trondheim. She she was grateful for Tarter for calling out sexist remarks from the panel. "It was very nice to have her stand up and make a comment about this," Alseth told me, adding that "overall, the festival has been great."

Panels have been skewed male, she agreed, but partly it's because there are way more male Nobel laureates than females (its own problem originating with the Nobel Foundation's selections), and Nobel Prize winners are heavily represented here.

Alseth agreed that more female voices are needed in science. "I think diversity is the way to go."

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Sexist Comments Spark Outrage at Major Astronomy Festival - Motherboard

The Stonehenge monument in England is known for its alignment with the summer solstice sunrise, and a is popular destination for revelers welcoming the longest day of the year. The inner horseshoe of the monument opens toward the point on the horizon where the sun appears on the day in June when the suns path is furthest North.

But on the same axis, in the opposite direction, is the point on the horizon where the sun sets on the winter solstice. And some experts suspect that the midwinter alignment may have been the more important occasion for the Neolithic people who built Stonehenge.

John North, a historian of astronomy, wrote in his book Cosmos:

The usual interpretation of Stonehenge would make its center the place from which the midsummer sun was observed over the Heel Stone. This is almost certainly mistaken. The viewing position was at the Heel Stone itself, outside the sacred space, and the chief celebration was that of the setting midwinter Sun, seen through the narrow central corridor. Stonehenge is a skeleton through which light can pass from numerous directions, as in the timber monuments before it, but all of these were carefully planned so as to present a solid appearance against the sky when viewed from suitable positions and the Heel stone is just such a position. Sight of the last glint of winter sunlight through the center of the black edifice must have been deeply moving.

To learn more about Stonehenge and see us test Norths idea on a model kit of the monument, check out the video above. And for more Vox videos, subscribe to our channel on YouTube.

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Decoding the ancient astronomy of Stonehenge - Vox

Astronomy blog By Dave Samuhel, AccuWeather senior meteorologist 6/21/2017, 3:08:57 PM

Happy summer! Astronomical summer is here. The day of the summer solstice, usually features the longest day of the year.

The sun will not set north of the Arctic Circle today.

The sun simply circles the horizon as the Earth rotates.

Farther south, the sun will set at its northernmost point on the horizon. You may notice sun shining through windows in your house that usually dont get any sunlight.

So what is going on? Is the Earth bouncing around on its axis to change the sun angle? NO

The Earth is permanently tilted as it orbits the sun. We know the Earth spins around an axis that extends from the North Pole to the South Pole, but that axis is tilted at 23.5 degrees.

So, its all about where the Earth is during its journey around the sun. Today, the axis of rotation points toward the sun. However, when the planet moves to the other side of the sun (aka winter solstice), that axis of rotation points away from the sun.

The farther north you are, the longer the day is. Lets take a look at the day length in different parts of the world...

June 21st Solar Information Table

As a side note, today was not the longest day of the year in some cases. Since the solstice was at 12:24 a.m. daylight time, this is actually closer to sunset yesterday than sunrise today. So, yesterday was the longest day of the year in many locations!

Thanks for reading! Just look up, you never know what you will see!

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Astronomical summer begins - AccuWeather - AccuWeather.com (blog)

For the last 45 years, astronomy professor Andrew Fraknoi has made it his mission to translate groundbreaking astronomical studies and the complex inner workings of the cosmos into everyday language. If a spectacular discovery about new earth-like planets or black holes splashes across headlines, it's a safe bet that radio hosts and Bay Area stargazers will look to Fraknoi to make sense of what's going on.

But after serving as the face of astronomy department at Foothill College for two decades, and playing a large part in shaping the way regional astronomers communicate with the public, Fraknoi said he's ready to retire. His final year teaching introductory astronomy concludes this month, leaving him more time to focus on public talks and a budding career as a science fiction writer.

Fraknoi said it's been the thrust of his career to turn astronomy into a subject that everyone can access, understand and enjoy, swapping out technical jargon and dry, raw data for easy-to-understand analogies and humor. Even a person who is deathly afraid of science, he said, ought to be able to understanding the new developments in the field.

Strong analogies can also be used as a springboard to convey to students the unimaginable size of celestial bodies, massive distances between stars and extreme temperatures and pressures present in space. Fraknoi said he explains the density of a neutron star -- the remains of a star after it dies and collapses into a small, tightly-packed object -- by telling students it would be like squeezing every human on earth into an area the size of a raindrop.

Oddly enough, Fraknoi's early career was shaped not just by what he learned in the classroom, but what he learned in radio. In the mid 1970s, he was invited to do an hour-long interview with KGO radio host Jim Eason. It put him in a completely different mindset: he had no blackboard, no slides and just a three-minute window to explain whatever astronomy topic got dumped into his lap.

"Jim (Eason) and I just hit it off, some chemistry just happened between us," Fraknoi recalled. "He took me under his wing and mentored me on how you answer science questions on the radio. He gave me lots of practice because he kept inviting me back every six weeks or so."

Fraknoi made frequent appearances on Bay Area radio, as Eason and other talk show hosts would use him as the station's de facto astronomy expert, a "nerdy but cool" resource to rely on when a big discovery or astronomical event becomes news. He spoke on KQED's Forum earlier this year about NASA's recent discoveries of seven earth-sized planets -- some of which appear to be habitable -- and what the New Horizons satellite taught researchers about the atmosphere and surface of Pluto.

Throughout his career, Fraknoi said there's been a "golden age" of new discoveries in astronomy that have fueled public interest and excited people, giving his students a timely angle on what they're learning in class. The field never gets boring, which is probably why the radio invitations keep coming, Fraknoi said.

"The big telescopes and our space probes have turned astronomy into a font of discoveries, it's like being a kid in a candy store," he said. "In my whole career it's just one exciting discovery, one giant telescope, after another."

Fraknoi's legacy goes beyond Foothill and local radio. He led the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP) for 14 years, and molded the organization into a resource for education and outreach programs with a presence all over the world. Under his leadership, ASP launched a nation-wide program called Project ASTRO, which pairs professional and amateur astronomers with teachers in order to bring astronomy to the classroom. The local chapter includes 250 active astronomers in over 150 schools in the greater Bay Area.

Linda Shore, the executive director of ASP, said the society used to be a relatively small, locally focused organization, with more of a "spectator's role" in astronomy education before Fraknoi took the helm. Now it couldn't be any more different, she said. ASP has a presence in schools, museums and planetariums, works with park rangers and Girl Scouts, and launched a "diversity initiative" to make sure students from all backgrounds have a chance to learn about the stars.

"We're in India working with Tibetan monks and nuns in exile, teaching them astronomy," Shore said. "We're working in Chile to help astronomers do outreach in their community."

Astronomy teachers hardly have an easy task, translating complex ideas and complicated contemporary research into information that students -- regardless of background -- can digest without feeling lost or confused. Shore said Fraknoi does his best to share his tricks and strategies, but he seems to have a special knack for finding the "essence" of what's going on in space and giving it an easy-to-understand explanation.

"He's really is good at conveying the magic about what's happening, and he does it in extremely few words with a single image or idea," she said. "Part of that is an art that you're sort of born with."

ASP still serves its original role as a professional resource for astronomers, publishing technical journals that are reviewed, or "refereed," by experts in the field. But because of Fraknoi, the organization has a new role as a leading organization in how to teach astronomy to the general public, said Michael Bennett, a former executive director for the society.

"When we start talking to scientists about being better communicators with the public, they're dealing with what they perceive as a legitimate scientific organization," said Bennett.

Outside of the classroom, Fraknoi has been working for years to prepare as many people as possible for the upcoming 2017 solar eclipse, a spectacular astronomical event where the moon blots out the sun during the day. Anyone standing in the path of the "total eclipse" zone, which spans from Oregon to South Carolina, will get a precious few minutes to see the sun totally blocked out, revealing a vibrant halo that shows the sun's expansive upper atmosphere.

But how prepared are we for this all-American eclipse? At a pubic talk last month, Fraknoi said said there's a long list of logistics problems and public health concerns for the upcoming Aug. 21 eclipse that are "keeping astronomers up at night." Millions of people are going to be tempted to stare directly at the sun to watch the eclipse without eye protection, he said, which can cause serious eye damage, even during a partial eclipse. What's more, the total eclipse path includes almost entirely rural cities, meaning small towns need to start planning ahead for a massive influx of visitors, traffic jams and a sudden need for public restrooms.

Fraknoi said he began planning for the eclipse about four years ago because he predicted it would be a big deal: It's the first eclipse of the internet age that's entirely over populated land, its path includes the entire United States, and the partial eclipse is going to be visible to nearly 500 million people.

Initially, he said his dream was to have Starbucks sell safe viewing glasses that would allow people to watch the eclipse without damaging their eyes. It seemed like a foolproof idea, he said, but for whatever reason Starbucks wasn't interested. He was later able to get Google and the Moore Foundation to agree to distribute 2 million viewing glasses at 4,800 public libraries all over the country, which he believes are an ideal location to reach as many people as possible.

"Despite the internet taking over things, libraries are still thriving enterprises," he said.

After wrapping up his teaching career, Fraknoi said he plans to shift gears toward writing, particularly science fiction that about science and astronomy. He said he's already joined a writers group and is coming up with stories regularly. So far, it's been a humble start to his budding hobby.

"Like many beginning authors, I have a bulletin board with rejection slips from the most important science fiction publishers in the world," he said. "But two of my stories have been published!"

A guide to the upcoming eclipse, co-written by Fraknoi, can be found online at bit.ly/2bkGSvA.

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Bringing astronomy down to earth - Mountain View Voice

For most people living in todays cities and towns, night sky is only about dust and pollution. There is literally no trace of a twinkle on the sky, all thanks to the atrocious levels air pollution.

Astroport Sarika

But for people who love to stargaze, here's some good news. Located in Rajasthan, Astroport Sariska near the Sariska National Park, is THE place to be for stargazing. The newly opened resort is just a five-hour drive from Delhi and is the second most dark place in India.

This gives on a chance to see the entire Milky Way streaking through the night sky and the view is nothing less than fantabulous.

Apart from just stargazing, the resort has brilliant camping facilities and many other activities like rock climbing, nature walk, jungle safari, village tours, track n sign, camel safari, horse riding, pottery, organic farm tour, yoga and aerobics.

Astroport Sarika

Astroport in its larger view aims at providing employment or creating entrepreneurs in the field of astronomy. Astroports are fully equipped to execute these trainings and provide certifications that can be used later to earn a livelihood, reads the information on their website.

The resort currently offers two types of accommodations, Galaxia which houses two king-size beds takes up to six people at a time. The total cost with meals amounts to approximately INR 13,000.

Astroport Sarika

The second accommodation is the Nebula which has 8 queen-size beds and can accommodate anywhere up to ten people at a time. It is priced at INR 22,000, including meals.

If you are planning the next vacation and are waiting for that perfect Instagram story. this is where you should head!

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India's First Astronomy Resort In Rajasthan Is Every Stargazer's ... - Indiatimes.com

A young star bursting with activity may have lit the torch that kicked another protostar on its path to a full-fledged stellar machine.

HOPS 370, a protostar 1,400 light years away in Orion, sent an outflow event toward HOPS 108. HOPS 370 has a few million year jump in age of on 108, and sent out the jet of gas from its poles around 100,000 years ago. In turn, this massive outflow activated a ball of gas that formed HOPS 108, kicking off its stellar life.

The researchers made the discovery by following the path of a jet, which seemed to be in the vicinity of the younger star. There are four stars in the region that could have seen a similar effect.

The discovery was made at the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array in New Mexico. The researchers published their results in the Astrophysical Journal.

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A bright protostar lit up its sibling to life - Astronomy Magazine

Universe Today

Astronomy Cast Ep. 453: Favorite Things We've Done These 10 Years Universe Today 10 years of Astronomy Cast wow. It's been a long, fun journey. What are some of our favorite episodes and adventures over the decade we've been doing this show. Visit the Astronomy Cast Page to subscribe to the audio podcast! We usually record ...

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Astronomy Cast Ep. 453: Favorite Things We've Done These 10 Years - Universe Today

Ilima Piianaia. Courtesy photo.

Earlier this year, the Imiloa Astronomy Center in Hilo announced the establishment of the first permanently endowed fund.

The fund honors the legacy of the late educator and government planner Ilima Piianaia.

Gordon Piianaia of Honolulu and Norman Piianaia of Kamuela launched the endowment in memory of their sister, and thanks to generous matching gifts from the community, the fund has already reached $55,000 and is still growing.

The Piianaia familys stated goal for the endowment is to expand access to educational programming at Imiloa by local elementary, middle and high school students. The funds are being invested in perpetuity by the University of Hawaii Foundation, and Imiloa will use the annual earnings to subsidize items such as admission fees and/or transportation to the center, scholarships for Imiloa programs, and/or program outreach to rural parts of Hawaii Island and the state.

About Ilima Piianaia (19472006) Born and raised on Oahu, Piianaia pursued a noteworthy career in the public sector, starting with her service as a Hawaii County planner helping to develop a general plan for the island. She later served with the Hawaii Community Development Authority and worked on the Kakaako Improvement District, among other projects.

She lecturedabout geography and planning at UH Mnoa from 1980 to 1984, administered the Task Force on the Hawaiian Homes Commission from 1982to 1983, then held appointments as Hawaii County deputy planning director, director of the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, director of the Office of International Relations and Affairs, and deputy director of the state Department of Agriculture.

A longtime friend of Ilima, Deanne Lemle Bosnak, remembers her as a perfect embodiment of aloha. She personally represented Hawaiis beautiful blend of cultures, its warm hospitality and its welcoming aloha spirit. She was also a diplomat who worked hard to build bridges between disparate communities and cultures, demonstrating in everything she did a deep respect for the land and the values of its people.

Courtesy photo provided by Imiloa Astronomy Center.

This spring, Imiloa marked the 11th anniversary of our opening, so this is a propitious time to be launching the centers first permanent endowment, which will ensure that we share our unique brand of programming with both current and future generations of schoolchildren, Imiloa Executive Director Kaiu Kimura said about the gift.We are humbled by the generosity of the Piianaia family and the many friends of Ilima who have stepped forward to support our mission and help us reach more young people throughout our second decade and beyond!

This wonderful gift will benefit the children of Hawaii for years to come, said University of Hawaii at Hilo Chancellor Donald Straney.

See more here:

First Endowed Fund at 'Imiloa Astronomy Center - Big Island Now