volcanism

By Dr. Franck Marchis Planetary Astronomer at the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe, SETI Institute I mentioned in my previous post that we observed several known multiple asteroid systems during our last observing run with the W.M. Keck Observatory and its Adaptive Optics Systems. If you have been following my personal blogs and/or the scientific articles of our group (you are courageous...) you know this is the scientific topic which is taking most of my time recently. Today, as you can see if you explore our VOBAD database, we know 192 companions of asteroids. What I…

By Dr. Franck Marchis Planetary Astronomer at the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe, SETI Institute I'd like to share the first of two blogs on observations of Io that we did using the Keck telescope and its Adaptive Optics (AO) system. Similar to last year, my summer is busy with the REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) students of the SETI Institute. I will write a specific post on two students who are working with me and their project in a few days. I obtained telescope time at the end of June 2010 with the W.M. Keck II telescope and its Adaptive Optics system…