Latest News
Evidence for Densest Nearby Galaxy
Nov 01, 2013
The MMT was one of the ground-based telescopes, along with the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory, used in studying a nearby and very dense galaxy, M60-UCD1. Read NASA’s press release and the paper.
Press Release — Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space …
Strategic Plan Charge
Oct 31, 2013
MMT Strategic Plan Committee Charge
We are empaneling a committee to lead the development of a long-term plan for the instrumentation and modes of observing at the MMT.
The near-term instrumentation situation at the MMT is:
* Binospec is expected …
Dual Supermassive Black Hole Candidates
Sep 19, 2013
Using publicly available data from the AGN and Galaxy Evolution Survey (AGES), conducted at the MMTO with the hectospec instrument, researchers have discovered seven new candidates for dual supermassive black hole systems in the centers of galaxies. Based on the …
Follow the MMTO on Facebook!
Sep 13, 2013
“Like” the MMTO on Facebook! You can expect to see announcements, updates, and pictures of historical and current observatory activities along with some stunning mountain scenery.
Studying the Mass Distribution in Galaxy Clusters
Aug 28, 2013
Using the hectospec instrument at the MMTO, astronomers are studying the mass distribution in galaxy clusters. The basic techniques were developed by M. J. Geller (Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory) and her collaborators some time ago. The data are now good enough …
Explosion Illuminates Invisible Galaxy
Aug 07, 2013
For followup details on the recent exciting observation noted here previously of an optical afterglow of a distant gamma ray burst, observed in part with the MMT’s Blue Channel Spectrograph, click here.
Results from MMTPol
Aug 05, 2013
A new MMTPol image of IRC+10420, a yellow hypergiant star located in the constellation of Aquila, reveals the unusual nature of this object, one of the most luminous stars known. The imaging polarimeter, originally commissioned at the MMT at the end of …
A Video Visit to the MMT Observatory
Jun 14, 2013
For a behind-the-scenes visit to the MMT Observatory, take a look at a video appearing in Astronomy magazine’s blog at Astronomy.com. The video was created by Jason Davis, a science journalism graduate student at the U of A.
MMT Spectroscopy
Jun 10, 2013
On June 7, R. Lunnan and collaborators from Harvard/CfA detected the optical afterglow of a distant gamma ray burst with the MMT’s Blue Channel Spectrograph only seven hours after the alert went out from the Burst Alert Telescope. More …
Supernova 2012au: First published results from MMTCam
Apr 07, 2013
A recently commissioned (Nov. 2012) capability at the MMT includes filtered imaging with MMTCam. A new publication by D. Milisavljevic (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) and colleagues on the slowly-evolving supernova 2012au, includes the first published results from MMTCam. Data from MMT Blue …