By Nadine Manset (Director of Science Operations, on behalf of the CFHT ‘ohana)
Recently
At its December 2024 meeting, the CFHT Board of Directors made an important recommendation regarding the Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer. See Pat Hall’s update in this newsletter.
In the science news, University of Hawaiʻi astronomers played a pivotal role in tracking an asteroid once feared to pose a risk to Earth. The asteroid, 2024 YR4, was discovered in late December and observed with MegaCam on the first night of the February run. Before the CFHT observations, the asteroid had a 3% probability of colliding with Earth in December 2032. Thanks to the MegaCam data and observations from other facilities, the likelihood dropped to just 0.28% and is now 0.001%. https://www.hawaii.edu/news/2025/02/20/hawaii-astronomers-asteroid-impact-probability-decreases/
MegaCam and its wide field of view also enabled another major discovery within our solar system, this time thanks to the work of Canadian astronomers. In March, a team from the University of British Columbia that includes Brett Gladman announced that Saturn now has 128 additional moons. Repeated monitoring of the sky around Saturn between 2019 and 2021 revealed the existence of the newly discovered irregular satellites. https://phas.ubc.ca/2025-discovery-more-saturnian-moons
Soon
The 14th CFHT Users’ Meeting will be held May 26 – 28 at Lac-à-L’Eau-Claire, in Québec. Although the abstract submission deadline has passed, registration is still open until April 1st. We are getting close to capacity for in-person attendance, so register quickly to save your seat if you’d like to join us in person! Remote participation is also possible. The Scientific Organization Committee is currently working on the program, which will include 2 or 3 sessions to prepare the Community Survey. The first session will present, on Monday, the scope, context, and process for the CS. Sessions on the following days will enable discussions among participants. https://www.cfht.hawaii.edu/en/news/UM2025/2ndannouncement.php