Announcements 2020

22 December 2020: Project & Science News This will be the last News Digest for 2020; Rubin Observatory wishes all our colleagues and their families a very happy and relaxing holiday. This year’s holiday card is featured on our website, along with a 2020 in Review news item that highlights the achievements of the past 12 months. Rubin Observatory will be participating in the American Astronomical Society Winter Meeting (AAS237) on January 11-16, 2021. If you’re attending the virtual meeting, we hope you’ll participate in the Rubin Observatory Open House on Tuesday, January 12th from 12:00-1:30 EST. Rubin will also have a virtual exhibit booth, which can be accessed from the meeting exhibit hall. Visit our booth to take a fun quiz, and you might win your very own limited-edition Rubin Observatory swag item. The AAS Meeting will also feature a special Dark Energy Science Collaboration (DESC) session on Thursday, January 14th at …

17 December 2020: On Friday 8 January 2021 journalists and other communications professionals are invited to participate in a virtual workshop on multi-messenger and time-domain astronomy. The workshop is part of the 237th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) and will run from 12:00 pm to 4:00 pm EST (17:00 to 21:00 GMT) [1]. Featuring presentations by several leaders in the fields of multi-messenger and time-domain astronomy, the workshop is offered jointly by NSF’s NOIRLab and the AAS Press Office. Funding is provided by the National Science Foundation through the Gemini Observatory’s Gemini in the Era of Multi-Messenger Astronomy program (GEMMA). Advance registration with an AAS 237 press registration is required by Wednesday 6 January 2021 (press registration is open to bona fide working journalists, public information officers, and other science writers). Over the past decade or so, discoveries have been made with “messengers” from space that go beyond photons, the messenger …

9 December 2020: Project & Science News Rubin Observatory now has an official logo! The logo premiered on December 3rd with a press release, social media posts, and announcements on all the Rubin communications channels. The logo is a visual representation of Rubin Observatory’s central purpose: to collect light from celestial objects and transform it into data for scientific discovery. Read more about the logo and its development in this news item. The Rubin Observatory Commissioning Camera (ComCam), arrived safely at the summit facility on November 16th, and has successfully completed functional testing. The ComCam quad box, which contains the utilities necessary to operate the camera, has been integrated with the refrigeration pathfinder, which will allow ComCam to condition and demonstrate the custom-made refrigeration system on the telescope before the LSST Camera is installed. Photos of ComCam in the white room of the summit facility are available in the Gallery. Dome cladding work …

7 December 2020: Following is an update on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on NSF’s NOIRLab. Starting in mid-October 2020, science operations conducted with limited staff were re-established at Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) in Arizona and at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), Gemini South, and SOAR facilities in Chile after their suspension on 18 March 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, since mid-May 2020, the Gemini North telescope has been conducting observations from Maunakea. At KPNO, the Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope and WIYN 3.5-meter Telescope, as well as a number of tenant facilities, have restarted limited nighttime operations. The focus has been on continuity of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) and NEID instrument commissioning. We are currently able to continue science operations at KPNO while following all public health guidelines and our rigorous safety protocols developed over the past eight months, and are closely monitoring the …

4 December 2020: Google Cloud today announced that Vera C. Rubin Observatory has entered into a three-year agreement to host its Interim Data Facility (IDF) on the Google Cloud Platform. This collaboration ushers in a new era in large-scale scientific computing of astronomy workloads in the cloud. Until the telescope becomes operational in 2023, the IDF will collect astronomical data, or “pre-survey data,” to prepare the Rubin Operations team and science community for the advent of the full survey. The observatory is located on Cerro Pachón in the Chilean Andes at the Southern end of the great Atacama Desert in Chile, taking advantage of its prime geographic location for astronomical observations and discovery. The Rubin IDF will process astronomical data collected by Rubin Observatory in its commissioning phase and make the data available to hundreds of users in the scientific community in advance of Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), …

3 December 2020: Vera C. Rubin Observatory is pleased to announce the release of its official logo following the organization’s renaming in December 2019. Formerly known as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, Rubin Observatory was renamed, by an Act of Congress, to honor American astronomer Vera C. Rubin, a pioneer in the study of dark matter and an advocate for women in science. The logo is a visual representation of Rubin Observatory’s central purpose: to collect light from celestial objects and transform it into data for scientific discovery. It is aligned with Rubin Observatory’s mission for operations: to create a vast astronomical dataset and web-based analysis environment for unprecedented discovery of the deep and dynamic Universe. The logo is made up of elements that reflect Rubin Observatory’s priorities and core values. The variety of celestial objects, each one a unique shape or size, symbolizes Rubin Observatory’s commitment to diversity. The curved lines invoke …

24 November 2020: Joan Najita of NSF’s NOIRLab has been named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Election as an AAAS Fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers. Najita was elected as an AAAS Fellow for her distinguished contributions to astrophysics, particularly for theoretical modeling of protoplanetary disks and winds and the applications of these models to observations of young stars. This year 489 members have been awarded this honor by AAAS because of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. This year’s AAAS Fellows will be formally announced in the AAAS News & Notes section of the journal Science on 27 November 2020. A virtual Fellows Forum — an induction ceremony for the new Fellows — will be held on 13 February 2021. The tradition of AAAS Fellows began in 1874. The AAAS Fellow honor comes with …

22 November 2020: An international team of astronomers has identified the nature of Earth’s second known minimoon, 2020 CD3, following its discovery by the Catalina Sky Survey and follow-up imaging with the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab, earlier this year. Upon its discovery the object was compelling but mysterious, with astronomers unsure if it was a rare natural rocky object or a lost piece of space junk. Now, observations from a collection of telescopes including Gemini North on Hawai‘i’s Maunakea have shown 2020 CD3 to be natural in origin. The minimoon is a rocky remnant of a larger body and measures about 1–1.5 metres (3–5 feet) across — roughly the size of a large desk. The team also found that 2020 CD3 was only a temporary visitor to Earth — after spending 2.7 years in orbit it was ejected to roam the Solar System in April this year. As well …

17 November 2020: Project & Science News Construction activity on Cerro Pachón continues to expand, with approximately 40 people working on the summit each day last week. That will increase this week, with the restart of the team installing critical telescope utilities. The contracted team for the dome is now about 20 people who are focused on getting the dome enclosed before the TMA team arrives in January. The dome cladding is going up fast! Photos are available in the Gallery. The Rubin Commissioning Camera (ComCam), which has been at the base facility in La Serena since May because of COVID-19 restrictions on the summit, is scheduled to move to Cerro Pachón this week, where it will be installed on the third level of the summit facility. The team in Chile has been preparing for this move for several weeks and they hope to get ComCam up and running on the summit very …

3 November 2020: Project & Science News The LSSTC Enabling Science 2020 Broker Workshop took place virtually on October 27-28. This workshop brought together representatives of all alert broker development teams, Rubin Observatory staff members, Science Collaborations members, and astronomers who are (or will be) using alert brokers for science. Participants made presentations about broker services and products, and the potential science cases they enable. Breakout discussions covered broker-related tools, algorithms, and catalogs, and strategies for collaboration to solve common issues. All of the slides and video recordings of the presentations are available on the workshop’s website, and some associated discussions appear in the Alerts & Brokers category on Community.lsst.org. A follow-up workshop is being planned for early 2021. The Survey Cadence Optimization Committee (SCOC) recently announced a virtual workshop which will take place on December 8-9, 2020. The SCOC is working to formulate a recommendation for the initial survey strategy by December …

21 October 2020: Project & Science News Last week, at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, the LSST Camera team conducted a successful test verifying the clearance between the filters and the shutter as the filter moves from its storage position to its online position. The level of clearance is extremely small to meet the optical design distance between the filter and the L3 lens. The completion of this test is significant for the Rubin Project because it retires some key interface risks for the Camera. Additional tests that will further verify the interoperability of the various Camera components are ongoing. Photos and video of the tests are available in the Gallery. An informative article on how Rubin Observatory and the LSST Camera will advance the study of dark matter, titled “A Powerful New Tool to Study the Cosmos,” was published in Symmetry Magazine on October 13th. Read the article at this link. Limited construction …

20 October 2020: On Monday 19 October 2020 the ninth edition of Viaje al Universo, one of the main Education and Outreach programs hosted by NOIRLab in Chile, began. Its goal is to share the wonders of the Universe, the excitement of astronomy, and the latest technological advances at NOIRLab’s facilities with students and families in Chile and other Spanish-speaking audiences. Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s Viaje al Universo has been converted to a virtual program. The program includes talks on astronomical topics, the operation of telescopes, solar observations, and observations of the Moon and planets. We will also have a career panel with observatory professionals who will talk about the next generation of big telescopes. On the opening day, the winner of the National Prize for Exact Sciences and Director of AURA in Chile, Dr. Mario Hamuy, gave a talk titled El Sol Negro (The Black Sun in English) in …

9 October 2020: NSF’s NOIRLab and AURA would like to extend their congratulations to the 2020 Physics Nobel Prize Laureates Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel, and Andrea Ghez. In the wake of Penrose's theoretical work that showed black holes must exist, Genzel and Ghez confirmed that there is a supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The international Gemini Observatory, a program of NSF’s NOIRLab, is proud to have played a part in Ghez's observations with the Gemini North adaptive optics system, along with the W.M. Keck and Subaru observatories all on Hawai‘i’s Maunakea. Ghez’s research team analyzed precise positional and spectroscopic data of a star known as S0-2 over two decades as it followed its elongated 16-year orbit around Sagittarius A* — the Milky Way’s central supermassive black hole. The star reached its closest approach to Sag A* in May 2018, when it was at a distance of only …

7 October 2020: We are continuously monitoring and actively responding to the COVID-19 situation, including taking measures to ensure the safety of our staff, their families and our communities. Our top operational priority at all sites has been the restart and continuity of science operations. A recent update on progress towards restarting science operations can be found on our COVID-19 web page. We have assessed the possibility of reopening our sites in Arizona, Hawai‘i and Chile for public visits, but after careful consideration we have concluded the sites will need to remain closed to public visits until at least 1 February 2021. This includes public visits to the Kitt Peak Visitor Center — and the public access to the Kitt Peak site via the mountain road — as well as public visits to our facilities in Hawai‘i (Gemini North) and Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachón in Chile (CTIO and Gemini South). With COVID-19 …

6 October 2020: Project & Science News A productive meeting of the AURA Management Council for Rubin Observatory (AMCR), AURA’s oversight and advocacy committee for Rubin, took place virtually on September 23-24. The report from the committee was submitted to the Rubin management team shortly after the meeting, allowing the leadership team to efficiently begin addressing the committee’s recommendations. Limited construction activities resumed on Cerro Pachón on September 28th, coinciding with the easing of the quarantine restrictions for the La Serena area, and following a thorough review to ensure that summit work could resume safely. Work will ramp up gradually over the next few months to ensure the team has time to re-adapt to working on the summit, and to adjust to the new COVID-19 protocols and procedures that are now in place. During the first week of the restart, a team of approximately 15 to 20 individuals worked on the summit for …

23 September 2020: Project & Science News The first images taken by the LSST Camera at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory received lots of attention from the media and the public after a press release announcing the milestone was issued by SLAC on September 8th. A web viewer for the images that was included with the press release received almost eight million hits in a 24-hour period, and the Romanesco image was by far the most popular! On September 11th, Rubin Observatory participated in a thorough audit and review with AURA and NOIRLab to determine whether planned “Phase 1” work activities can safely be restarted on Cerro Pachón. These include limited construction activities for Rubin Observatory and limited science operations for the existing observatories. The plans have been carefully developed by members of the technical, management, and safety teams over several months to establish the highest level of safety for those involved in the …

8 September 2020: The Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) Camera team at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC) has released the first 3200-megapixel digital photo taken using the array of imaging sensors that will be integrated into the LSST Camera. This is the largest image ever captured in a single shot, and it is a successful test of the LSST Camera’s focal plane, which was completed at SLAC in January 2020. Once operating at Rubin Observatory in Chile, the camera will produce panoramic images of the complete Southern sky — one panorama every few nights for 10 years. Its data will feed into the Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) — a catalog of more galaxies than there are living people on Earth and of the motions of countless astrophysical objects. Using the LSST Camera, the observatory will create the largest astronomical movie of all …

8 September 2020: Project & Science News The LSST Camera team at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory has released the first 3200-megapixel digital images taken using the Camera’s full array of imaging sensors. These are the largest images ever captured in single shots, and they are a successful test of the Rubin LSST Camera’s focal plane, which was completed at SLAC in January 2020. An overview is provided in this news item, which includes a link to the images and more details about this exciting achievement. A National Science Foundation (NSF)/Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Status Review took place virtually August 31st - September 4th. Members of the review panel congratulated the Project for good progress made before the COVID-19 construction shutdown, and commented that management has done an admirable job of identifying COVID-19 impacts to the Project and planning accordingly. The review committee noted that prior recommendations have been adequately addressed, and presented …

2 September 2020: After receiving its new short name, NSF’s NOIRLab, earlier in 2020, a targeted effort was started to move NOIRlab’s public Internet presence from the interim website at nationalastro.org to a new domain at noirlab.edu. This public site has now been launched and is the main web portal for the public and media. The new website offers a complete archive of all NOIRLab information for the public and media — more than 5000 images with rich contextual metadata, hundreds of videos, news, print products, fulldome sequences for planetariums to download and show in their domes, and more. The assets are freely available for download and use under a Creative Commons Attribution license. The site also offers a historical perspective through the archives of newsletters from NOAO and Gemini. The website is bilingual in English and Spanish. Each of NOIRLab’s five Programs, the international Gemini Observatory, Kitt Peak National Observatory, Cerro Tololo …

21 August 2020: On Tuesday 25 August, astronomers will release the final report from the Satellite Constellations 1 workshop during a virtual press conference hosted by the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab and the American Astronomical Society (AAS). The briefing, to be conducted via Zoom, will begin at 2:00 pm US Eastern Daylight Time (18:00 UTC) and last 1 hour. Registration instructions appear below. When SpaceX began launching clusters of 60 Starlink satellites in May 2019, astronomers reacted with alarm. Not only are the Starlink satellites brighter than anyone expected, but there could be tens of thousands more like them as companies in the rapidly growing commercial space industry strive to provide satellite-based communication services to underserved and remote areas. Constellations of bright satellites in low Earth orbit will fundamentally change ground-based optical and infrared astronomy and could impact the appearance of the night sky for stargazers worldwide. SATCON1 gathered more than 250 astronomers, …