Announcements

11 November 2024: Together with the other Maunakea Observatories (MKOs), and a collection of STEM organizations, the International Gemini Observatory, funded in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation and operated by NSF NOIRLab, celebrated the annual AstroDay Kona. On Saturday, 2 November 2024, friends and families of all ages were invited to the free event held outdoors at the Kona Commons Shopping Center in Kailua-Kona, Hawai‘i. AstroDay Kona provided an estimated 600 visitors with the opportunity to learn about the Universe and the spectacular discoveries made by Gemini and the other telescopes on Maunakea. Like the Annual AstroDay in Hilo each May, this event is led by the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy. To share the wonders of the cosmos that inspire astronomy research, observatory staff presented the community with special science demonstrations, activities and informative exhibitions, including dozens of free images, hands on optics demonstrations, and exoplanet crafts! More information …

6 November 2024: Project and Science News Rubin achieved a historic milestone on October 24th, 2024, when the summit team captured the first on-sky data with Rubin’s Commissioning Camera and transferred it from Chile to the US Data Facility at SLAC. This successful end-to-end engineering test is the product of decades of dedication and innovation by Rubin Project members and the community. Read the details in Rubin’s public announcement on rubinobservatory.org. Additional visuals are available in the Gallery. During the periods of on-sky commissioning using the Commissioning Camera (ComCam) and LSST Camera (LSSTCam), Rubin Observatory plans to share brief technical updates on the progress of on-sky commissioning activities with the Rubin science community on a roughly weekly cadence. These posts will complement existing communications products. Posts will appear on the LSST Community forum in the News category with the commissioning-updates tag and on the LSSTC Slack workspace in the new #commissioning-updates channel. Rubin …

5 November 2024: More than 1300 students and 80 teachers participated in the activities of Viaje al Universo 2024, which took place from 21–25 October in La Serena and Vicuña in Chile. Viaje is one of NSF NOIRLab’s core educational programs, whose main goal is to bring astronomers, scientists, engineers and the staff of our observatories into the local classrooms. This year’s program included 41 activities implemented in 5 schools of La Serena and Vicuña by a group of 26 volunteers. All the activities of Viaje are aligned with the Chilean educational curriculum in order to provide a tangible contribution to the teaching and learning of science, physics and astronomy in Chile. Teachers and students were excited by all of the engaging activities, which included solar telescope observations, dark sky awareness experience, as well as workshops to learn about the Solar System, the life cycle of stars, galaxies, robotics, and much more. These …

28 October 2024: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory passed its first end-to-end engineering test using a low-resolution testing camera known as the Commissioning Camera. The Commissioning Camera will later be replaced with the much higher resolution LSST Camera, the largest digital camera ever built, which Rubin Observatory will use to conduct the most comprehensive data-gathering mission in the history of astronomy — the 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time. Rubin is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. The mood in the observatory control room was electric as Rubin’s first on-sky data were captured by the test camera and transferred successfully from the observatory in Chile to the U.S. Data Facility at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California. This moment was the culmination of decades of hard work by the Rubin team. Those present in Chile gathered at the base of the Simonyi Telescope …

17 October 2024: Between 30 September and 3 October NSF NOIRLab hosted the First Gigayear(s) Conference at the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel. This conference brought together experts in a variety of fields to discuss the Universe’s first few billion years of evolution, and the galaxies, black holes, stars, chemicals, and large-scale structure that formed during that time. A considerable portion of the conference was also focused on discussions of the historical, geographical, and cultural context surrounding astronomical activities on Maunakea and the interface between the Maunakea Observatories and the local community at large. These discussions were paired with activities throughout the conference that focused on the culture, beauty, and diversity of Hawai‘i. Adding to the ongoing community conversation about these topics, NOIRLab hosted two discussion panels featuring observatory directors and project managers, the director of ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center (‘Imiloa) — the world’s only native astronomy center — and experts in community building and outreach. …

16 October 2024: Project and Science News Rubin officially has a complete telescope on Cerro Pachón after the Primary/Tertiary Mirror (M1M3) Cell Assembly was installed by the summit team last week. With the Secondary Mirror (M2) and the 144-megapixel Commissioning Camera in place on the telescope mount, it won’t be long before Rubin takes its first on-sky observations. Read the details about this major achievement on rubinobservatory.org. Shortly after the M1M3 installation, Rubin announced the naming of its state-of-the-art telescope as the Simonyi Survey Telescope. This celebratory event at the Rubin Observatory Summit Facility on Cerro Pachón in Chile was attended by the Simonyi family, Rubin Observatory leadership, representatives of NSF and DOE, and other guests. Read more about it in this press release issued on October 11th. Preparing for the M1M3 installation took many months of integration and weeks of intense preparation, including load testing for the critical transport to level 8 …

3 October 2024: Have you ever wondered what might happen to our Solar System in a few billion years? The Sun will eventually turn into a white dwarf — a dead remnant of its current self — consuming the inner planets along the way. Some white dwarfs are surrounded by dusty disks containing asteroids, comets, and other remnants of their planetary systems. These disks are excellent laboratories for studying the end stage of planetary systems, providing unique information about the formation and death of planets. To help search for examples of asteroids orbiting white dwarfs in the Milky Way, NSF NOIRLab has launched the Exoasteroids citizen science project. With the help of volunteers, this project is aimed at identifying white dwarfs that have changed in brightness over the past decade. Such fluctuations may indicate that a white dwarf is the remnant of a planetary system still actively destroying its lingering exoasteroids, leading to …

3 October 2024: Project and Science News The seventh in a series of Rubin science releases showcasing Rubin’s upcoming contributions to various areas of astronomy and astrophysics is now available. Read (in English or Spanish) and share “Rubin Observatory’s Unparalleled Vision Will Revolutionize Multi-Messenger Astronomy,” on rubinobservatory.org A successful LSST@Europe6 meeting took place on the island of La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain, from September 16-20. A notable number of early-career scientists participated in the meeting, a good indicator that Rubin is generating excitement and will have a tremendous impact on the next decade of scientific research. A particular focus of discussions was on synergies between Rubin and other projects such as ESA’s Euclid, as well as with In-kind contribution teams based in Europe and globally. A group photo from the meeting is available in the Gallery. Rubin Observatory has updated the statement regarding increased deployment of satellite constellations at this link. In early …

2 October 2024: Multi-messenger astronomy is a powerful new tool for exploring the cosmos that combines the information from multiple types of signals to understand a single astronomical source or event. The four messengers that astronomers study are light, cosmic rays, neutrinos and gravitational waves. Because a source can change rapidly, it’s critical that observations of these messengers occur simultaneously or within a short time span so that astronomers capture their properties before the source changes. However, it’s quite the challenge to coordinate follow-up from multiple optical observatories across the globe — each with its own instruments — while minimizing duplication and maximizing the value of the combined dataset. That’s why the U.S. National Science Foundation has awarded $2 million in funding to the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) and the Center for AstroPhysical Surveys (CAPS), in collaboration with NSF NOIRLab and Las Cumbres Observatory, to build a service that allows researchers …

30 September 2024: Join us at the U.S. National Science Foundation Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), a program of NSF NOIRLab, for two unforgettable nighttime experiences brought back by popular demand: the Magnificent Moon Program and the Dark Sky Discovery Program. Located on a sacred Tohono O’odham Nation sky island, KPNO sits high above the Sonoran Desert in a unique mountain environment. Enjoy breathtaking views of the night sky and an intimate connection to nature through the rich flora, fauna, and fascinating geology of the region. Magnificent Moon Program: Embark on a fascinating, guided journey across the lunar surface. Using powerful telescopes, you’ll explore craters, mountains, maria, rilles, and the locations of the Apollo landings sites in incredible detail like you have never seen before. This experience is run on nights of the month that are close to the full Moon, ensuring excellent lunar vistas. This program generally uses the KPVC Roll Off …

20 September 2024: At the U.S. National Science Foundation Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, a Program of NSF NOIRLab, is a collection of four small telescopes known as the Small and Moderate Aperture Research Telescope System (SMARTS). Between 2003 and 2023, the SMARTS Consortium operated a 0.9-meter Telescope, a 1.0-meter Telescope, a 1.3-meter Telescope, and a 1.5-meter Telescope. The partners of the original SMARTS Consortium were the American Museum of Natural History, the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), the University of Delaware, Georgia State University, Ohio State University, the Space Telescope Science Institute, Stony Brook University, Vanderbilt University/Fisk Observatory and Yale University. SMARTS is continuing in a new two-facet structure and the telescopes and their work will live on under two different entities. The 1.5-meter and 0.9-meter will be operated by the Georgia State University Research Foundation and will be known as SMARTS-GSU. University of North Carolina and the …

18 September 2024: From the early telescopes made hundreds of years ago by Galileo to the sophisticated astronomical observatories of today, people have built increasingly innovative tools to probe and measure the cosmos. Soon, researchers at two new institutes funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Simons Foundation will build a new breed of astronomical tools by harnessing the uniquely powerful abilities of artificial intelligence (AI) to assist and accelerate humanity's understanding of the Universe. The new National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes for astronomical sciences are part of the NSF-led National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes program, which now includes 27 AI institutes across the U.S. The two new institutes, one of which will be jointly led by NSF NOIRLab, will each receive $20 million over five years: $10 million from NSF and $10 million from the Simons Foundation. “The massive amount of data that will be gathered in the coming …

11 September 2024: Project and Science News Daylight Saving Time started in Chile on September 8th, so Chile is now four hours ahead of official Project time (PST). Be aware that meeting times may change — organizers can help confirm start times. The Summit team re-installed the Rubin Commissioning Camera (ComCam) on the telescope on August 23rd. ComCam has previously been on the telescope, but was removed before the installation of the secondary mirror (M2) in late July. ComCam — a smaller (144 megapixel), simpler version of the full 3200-megapixel LSST Camera — is being used for testing and commissioning activities prior to installation of the LSST Camera, anticipated to happen late this year. In the coming weeks the summit team will install the primary/tertiary (M1M3) mirror cell with its coated glass mirror, enabling ComCam to produce the first astronomical data from the Simonyi Survey Telescope. Watch a video of the installation on …

9 September 2024: The Visitor Center at the U.S. National Science Foundation Kitt Peak National Observatory is celebrating its 60th anniversary! To help bring news of this momentous occasion to the public, we invite the media to take part in a Media Day at Kitt Peak on Friday 27 September from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Media will have exclusive access to facilities and interviews with the people leading and working at Kitt Peak, as well as representatives of the Tohono O’odham Nation. A common briefing will occur at 10 a.m., which will offer an opportunity to hear and ask questions about the history of the Kitt Peak Visitor Center, the Visitor Center’s strategy in the past and going forward, and the cultural connections that the Tohono O’odham Nation have to the observatory and the mountain. After the briefing participants will branch out to individual experiences and interviews. Throughout the day media will …

28 August 2024: Just how dark is deep space? In 2021 a team of astronomers, including Tod Lauer of the U.S. National Science Foundation-funded NSF NOIRLab, attempted to answer this long standing question by tapping into the capabilities and distant position of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft [1], which allowed them to make the most precise, direct measurements ever of the total amount of light the Universe generates. The results surprisingly showed that the Universe was brighter than expected, and the origin of the mysterious ‘extra light’ became the question. Now, thanks to new and improved data from New Horizons, the team [2] has determined that this extra light was actually a consequence of contaminating foreground light. More than 18 years after launch and nine years after its historic exploration of Pluto, New Horizons is more than 7.3 billion kilometers (5.4 billion miles) from Earth, in a region of the Solar System far enough …

23 August 2024: Project and Science News Rubin is planning to host media visits to the summit facility on Cerro Pachón during a two-month period starting in early 2025. Members of the media wishing to visit the observatory are encouraged to submit this media visit interest form to assist with our planning. This FAQ page is a helpful resource, additional questions should be directed to communications-team@lists.lsst.org The Rubin Communications Team has recently seen an increase in media requests, which will continue to build as we get closer to releasing the first Rubin images with a big media splash in 2025. If you’re interested in joining a pool of enthusiastic, media-trained individuals (both Rubin staff and worldwide science community members) that we can connect with reporters/journalists for interviews please fill out the Rubin media contact volunteer form. We also plan to offer opportunities for basic media training including talking points and key messages, interview …

8 August 2024: The IAU Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference (IAU CPS), which is co-hosted by NSF NOIRLab and the SKAO, has received a SWIFT-SAT grant [1] from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). The funded project aims to develop a set of publicly accessible software tools and online services that for the first time would allow astronomers to precisely predict the positions, time of passage and brightness of satellites. One tool called SatChecker, an early version of which was developed by members of the CPS, will help ground-based observatories by providing accurate predictions of satellite positions and their optical brightness. This valuable information will aid astronomers in adapting observation schedules and mitigating some negative impacts on their observations. “This NSF funding will improve observatories’ ability to reduce the frequency of satellite passes affecting observations, therefore improving science outcomes,” said Connie Walker, Co-Director of …

7 August 2024: Project & Science News The Rubin Community Workshop (Rubin 2024) took place July 22-26 at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, CA and was a big success. This year’s meeting was fully hybrid, with about 200 people attending in person and an additional ~250 participating in virtual sessions. Read a summary of the meeting at this link. The group photo is available for download here. The summit team achieved a major milestone on July 24th with the installation of the glass secondary mirror assembly on the telescope mount. This marks the successful integration of the first permanent component of the telescope’s optical system. The Rubin team issued a press release to announce the event. The first Data Management (DM) Standards Review was held at SLAC on July 29-30. The review committee commended the Rubin DM team on their strategy and approach to meeting requirements, and initiated productive discussions with …

7 August 2024: The annual number of publications in peer-reviewed journals using observations from telescopes operated by NOIRLab [1] is among the most important productivity metrics in astronomy, astrophysics and all of science. NSF NOIRLab, which encompasses many of the world’s most powerful and productive telescopes, continues to provide exceptional service to the international astronomical community, leading to impressive representation in peer-reviewed publications. Since 2014 the observatories comprising NOIRLab have seen an overall increasing trend in total publications [2], from 535 refereed publications in the 2014 calendar year [2] to 640 refereed publications in 2023, slightly lower than 2022 [3]. This trend positions NOIRLab in the upper echelon of world-class observatories, alongside the European Southern Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope. Contributing to the greatest number of total refereed publications in 2023, with 476 (75%), were NOIRLab’s mid-scale observatories (MSO). This metric includes telescopes at NSF Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) and NSF …

26 July 2024: Kitt Peak National Observatory will host a Perseid meteor shower watch party on 11–12 August, from 7 p.m. to midnight. Stand amongst the world-class telescopes that astronomers use to discover our Universe while fiery pieces of cosmic dust streak across the night sky. The Perseids are widely regarded as the most consistent and amazing meteor shower to grace our skies each year. The shower is associated with comet Swift-Tuttle and can produce displays of up to 100 ‘shooting stars’ per hour. And what better location to watch the show than from high in the Quinlan mountains on the Tohono O’odham Nation, beneath the clear skies of the Sonoran Desert? This experience will include a light dinner, after which, weather permitting, there will be guided stargazing, and views of stars, galaxies and more through our Visitor Center 0.5-meter telescope, and also an open area to view the meteor shower with members …