Kilo Hōkū - Telling Stories of Hawaiian Stars

Read more about the bills passed yesterday (https://aas.org/posts/news/2026/01/congress-passes-fiscal-year-2026-spending-bills-nsf-nasa-and-doe), and thank your members of Congress today! https://aas.org/action-alert-thank-you-fy2026

Watch out! ☄️You never know when you’ll see something different in the sky, like this extra-bright meteor, known as a fireball, spotted by the Maunakea live we**am near the Gemini North telescope in Hawai‘i.

Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA

On this day in history: On January 17th, 1893, Queen Lili'uokalani was deposed and Hawai'i's monarchy was replaced by a provisional government under the leadership of Sanford B. Dole. Lili'uokalani served as Hawai'i's last ruling monarch and spent her life in the service of her kingdom and her people, including efforts she made to try and restore Hawai'i's monarchy. Learn more about Queen Lili'uokalani at Basically Books.

Our latest exoplanet explorer, Pandora, launched on Jan. 11. Now it is preparing to study exoplanets, the elements we find in their atmospheres, and their stars. So, what can we expect from that data?

When a planet passes in front of its host star — an event called a transit — part of the star’s light skims the atmosphere before making its way to us. This interaction can imprint the chemical signature of different elements present on the light. Thanks to Pandora’s near-infrared detector — a spare developed for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope — astronomers will get unprecedented insight into what a planet could be like. Will it be snowing sunscreen, raining jewels, or even contain water, a key ingredient for life as we know it? Pandora will help us find out!

Learn more: https://go.nasa.gov/4t0ej9J

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