DON'T PANIC -- More supernovae on the way! (Forwarded)

Carnegie Institution of Washington

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

Tina McDowell
Carnegie Institution
1530 P. St., NW
Washington, D.C. 20005
202-939-1120



Paul Martini at the Observatories
813 Santa Barbara St.
Pasadena, CA 91101
626-577-1122


July 14, 2003

DON'T PANIC -- More supernovae on the way!

Pasadena, California -- Recent near-infrared images from a new camera called
PANIC (Persson's Auxiliary Nasmyth Infrared Camera) on the 6.5-meter Clay
telescope at Las Campanas Observatory, Chile, confirm that the camera and
telescope hold a promising future for understanding the nature of dark energy,
exploring the formation and evolution of distant galaxies, and identifying
protoplanetary material around young stars.

Installed on the Clay telescope of the Magellan Project, PANIC can image some of
the faintest targets ever observed. Under the best conditions, the immense
light-gathering power and superb image quality of the Clay telescope will be
used to observe supernovae in extremely distant galaxies, observations that will
help to reveal the nature of the mysterious dark energy that comprises the
majority of the energy in the universe. The nature of this dark energy is one of
the outstanding questions in modern astrophysics. "PANIC's superb image quality
can measure distant supernovae extremely precisely, measurements that are
crucial for understanding the nature of the dark energy," states Dr. Eric
Persson, Carnegie Observatories astronomer and principal designer of the instrument.

Among the first objects PANIC has imaged is the Antennae -- the famous pair of
interacting galaxies laced with many young, massive star clusters and dust.
Using observations from the Hubble Space Telescope and PANIC, the PANIC team
made a composite image that demonstrates the excellent image quality of the
camera and reveals red star clusters barely visible in the HST data.
"Near-infrared observations with PANIC can see through clouds of gas and dust
that obscure our normal vision. They open up a whole new window to study star
formation, distant galaxies, and supernovae," noted Dr. Wendy Freedman, director
of the Carnegie Observatories. In the second image, using a filter that isolates
light from molecular hydrogen, the team viewed the planetary nebula NGC 3132 --
a remnant gas shell from an old red star.

PANIC is the first near-infrared camera built for the Magellan Project, a
consortium with over 300 astronomers from five institutions: the Carnegie
Observatories, Harvard University, the University of Arizona, the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, and the University of Michigan. It was built at
Carnegie over the last two years and began operations in Chile in April.

High Resolution PANIC images available at this link:
http://www.ociw.edu/instrumentation/...issioning.html

The Magellan Project is a collaboration of the Magellan Consortium, which
designed, built, and uses the twin 6.5-meter Baade and Clay Telescopes at
Carnegie's Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. The Carnegie Institution of
Washington (www.CarnegieInstitution.org), a pioneering force in basic scientific
research since 1902, is a private, nonprofit organization with six research
departments in the U.S.: Plant Biology, Global Ecology, Embryology, the
Geophysical Laboratory, the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, and the
Carnegie Observatories.