Join the Subaru Telescope on Friday, March 13, from 9:00 to 11:00p (HST) for its first Japanese-language session with a powerful new instrument, the ʻŌnohiʻula Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS). Everyone is welcome to participate in this free event where you’ll be able to watch real-time observations as scientists collect spectra from distant galaxies through the Shadow the Scientists (StS) program.
During this session, Finn Giddings, a PhD student at the University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy; Dr. Brian C. Lemaux, a staff scientist at the Gemini North Telescope; and members of the Charting Cluster Construction with VUDS and ORELSE (C3VO) research team will use ʻŌnohiʻula PFS to study a large sample of galaxies in some of the largest structures in the early Universe. The primary goal of these observations is to map these immense cosmic structures. The team will also examine how often galaxies in the early Universe interacted and merged, as well as how such interactions influenced galaxy evolution, including the growth of their supermassive black holes, around 10 billion years ago when the Universe was only 10-20% of its current age. In tandem with previous radio, mid-infrared, and X-ray observations, the team aims to understand the role of galaxy interactions in shaping these structures and driving black hole growth.
Subaru Telescope staff will also present how the ʻŌnohiʻula PFS was developed, demonstrate how the instrument is operated, and share the meaning of its Hawaiian name, ʻŌnohiʻula.
HST: Friday, March 13, 9:00-11:00p | JST: Saturday, March 14, 4:00-6:00p
This is a dedicated Japanese and English session.
About ʻŌnohiʻula PFS
ʻŌnohiʻula PFS is a wide-field, multi-object spectrograph installed on the Subaru Telescope that began full science operations in March 2025. This instrument can observe approximately 2,400 celestial objects at the same time across a wide field of view. It breaks down the light of each object into a rainbow extending well past the range of human vision, i.e., from the visible to near-infrared light. ʻŌnohiʻula PFS is one of the world’s most powerful tools for capturing and analyzing light from numerous distant objects simultaneously, making it an exceptional instrument for exploring and characterizing large numbers of distant galaxies.