Announcements

8 January 2016: Weighing in at 500 trillion times the mass of the Sun, the young galaxy cluster IDCS 1426, located 10 billion light years from Earth, is the most massive distant cluster known. Recently weighed using data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope, it was first identified with data from the NOAO Deep Wide-field Survey and data taken with the Spitzer Space Telescope.

1 January 2016: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Press Release Einstein’s general theory of relativity predicts the emission of gravitational waves by massive celestial bodies moving though space-time. For the past century gravitational waves have eluded a direct detection, but now the LIGO Virgo Collaboration has announced the first direct detection of gravitational waves, emitted by a merging pair of black holes (see also Keith Cooper’s news story for further background). Catastrophic mergers of binary systems can also produce brilliant and explosive fireworks of light, so a team of astronomers, including at Harvard, sought evidence of such a visible afterglow. Although none was spotted, this work represents the first detailed search for a visible counterpart of a gravitational wave event. It also will serve as a model for similar event follow-up in the future. “Our team has been anxiously waiting for the first detection of gravitational waves so that we can rapidly point the …

22 December 2015: TW Hydrae (TW Hya) is one of the best-studied young stars in the galaxy.At just 180 light years from Earth and a ripe young age of roughly 8 million years, this nearly solar-mass star and its orbiting, circumstellar disk of dust and gas are prime targets to better understand the processes involved in star and planet formation. The most sensitive telescope systems available, accessing wavelengths from radio to X-ray, have observed the TW Hya system. Astronomers have now used the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) on Gemini South to image infrared light from TW Hya that is scattered off dust grains in its surrounding disk. The new GPI images confirm the presence of a darkened ring or gap in the disk at 23 AU (i.e., 23 times the earth-Sun distance) -- and GPI brings this gap into the sharpest focus yet. Comparison with detailed numerical simulations of planets forming in circumstellar …

18 December 2015: The LSST Weekly Digest will be on break through the holidays and AAS meeting, resuming the week of January 11th, 2016. Happy Holidays, Felices Fiestas, and see you at the AAS! Project News The camera team held a design review at BNL last week leading to a successful completion of the science raft design. AURA’s Workforce and Diversity Committee met in Tucson last week, informing and supporting LSST in their effort to promote an inclusive and positive workplace culture, which is required to recruit and retain a diverse workforce. Steve Kahn and Beth Willman are in Germantown, VA, discussing LSST governance and funding for LSST Operations. Participants include representatives of the NSF, DOE, and AURA. The Telescope & Site group held a design review for the Facilities Building on the recinto in La Serena. Those involved (LSST, AURA, and CTIO) have converged on a design for the office building and …

14 December 2015: A team of Australian researchers used two Maunakea-based observatories – Gemini North and W. M. Keck Observatory – to discover why some galaxies are clumpy rather than spiral in shape and it appears that low spin is to blame. The finding challenges an earlier theory that high levels of gas cause clumpy galaxies, and sheds light on the conditions that brought about the birth of most of the stars in the Universe. The finding was published today in The Astrophysical Journal. A combination of integral field spectroscopy data from Keck Observatory and Gemini Observatory was the key to obtaining measurements for a galaxy’s spin. Keck Observatory’s OSIRIS instrument collected data high spatial resolution in the galaxy centers, and the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) collected data for high surface brightness sensitivity out to large radii. The rest of the text is adapted from the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research press …

11 December 2015: Project News Data Management (DM) Project Manager Jeff Kantor gave a presentation at the NGVLA Workshop in Socorro, NM, about lessons learned from LSST DM that could inform the Next Generation VLA. Additional notes on all DM weekly activities are available in the community forum. LSST's Project Science Team (PST) met in Tucson this week. They discussed construction progress, planning for commissioning and operations phases, recent observing campaign in Chile focused on calibration metrology, LSST presentation at the upcoming mid-decadal review, proposed new baseline cadence and various ways to further optimize it, how to ensure that the construction team members get proper credit for their work, and the path forward regarding event brokers, including an informative presentation by the Antares team. NOAO and LSST are leading a community-based study (funded by the Kavli Foundation and endorsed by NSF/AST) of US OIR capabilities needed to maximize science in the LSST era. …

4 December 2015: Project News The LSST Project Team congratulates Director Steve Kahn who has been elected as a 2015 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Minutes and presentations from the LSST Science Advisory Committee face-to-face meeting held in Tucson on November 16, 2015, have been posted. Topics discussed include the plans for deciding on the LSST cadence, whether the LSST camera focal plane might include two different types of sensors, and possible synergies between LSST, WFIRST, and Euclid. A meeting was held with Department of Energy (DOE) representatives last week to discuss plans for the DOE contributions to LSST operations, along with plans for operational support of the LSST Dark Energy Science Collaboration (DESC). The meeting was attended by LSST Director Steve Kahn, AURA President Matt Mountain, LSSTC Board Chair and SLAC Research Director David MacFarlane, SLAC Division Head for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology Tom Abel, LSST@SLAC …

30 November 2015: Observations using the Gemini Planet Imager are featured prominently at the Extreme Solar Systems III meeting ongoing this week (Nov. 29 - December 4) in Waikoloa Hawai‘i. Below are two results from a press conference on December 1, 2015.

23 November 2015: Gemini observations provide a key scientific context for a striking new image of the gravitationally lensed galaxy group popularly known as the Cheshire Cat. The image, released by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, combines X-ray data with optical images from the Hubble Space Telescope to paint a remarkable likeness to the famously devious smiling cat in Lewis Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland. Behind the scenes, Gemini played a critical role in the image’s scientific story by taking the spectral fingerprints of many of the galaxies that make up the foreground cluster which bends the distant galactic light. For more details on the image, and how gravitational lenses work, see the Chandra press release here. Gemini South astronomer Rodrigo Carrasco, a co-author on the paper which spawned the image, adds that Gemini provided the core spectroscopic data that allowed the team to fully characterize the cluster of foreground galaxies which serves as the …

20 November 2015: Project News The Data Management (DM) Leadership Team held their quarterly meeting in Princeton this week. The primary result was an agreement on refinements to the DM Roadmap, the milestone plan for construction and commissioning. LSST’s online forum for technical discussion and support of community software is available for all to join at community.lsst.org. Interested scientists can now self-subscribe to the LSST science mailing list; see the sidebar on lsst.org/scientists for instruction on how to join. Bo Xin et al's paper on the LSST curvature wavefront sensing algorithm was published in Applied Optics (http://arxiv.org/abs/1506.04839) and linked to the LSST Publications Page which now support the capability to filter by lead authors. Corporation News The LSST Transients and Variable Stars Science Collaboration has named Federica Bianco (NYU) as their new co-chair, who will replace Lucianne Walkowicz. Many thanks to Lucianne for her leadership for many years, and welcome to Federica! Personnel …

13 November 2015: Project News An executive summary of the LSST Technical Progress Report for September has been submitted to the NSF and posted on our public website: http://lsst.org/news/monthly-progress-updates Lynne Jones and Mario Juric gave presentations at the IAU Symposium 318 "Asteroids: New Observations, New Models" in Aug 2015. Their symposium proceedings, describing LSST capabilities for detecting moving objects and new simulation software to evaluate the scientific effectiveness of those observations, is available on arXiv and linked from the LSST Solar System page. A prototype Collimated Beam Projector is on its way from Harvard to Chile (via Tucson) in preparation for a Thanksgiving observing run on the Blanco 4m with DECam. This device, mounted in front of the telescope, will be used to test calibration techniques with the LSST. Five hour-long Public Lectures and twenty-five Astronomy Slam videos from LSST2015 in Bremerton have been uploaded to the LSST YouTube Channel. The group “photo” …

10 November 2015: The following is based on a translation of the Korean press release. A team of Korean astronomers discovered a faint quasar in the early Universe which sheds light on the main sources of illumination about 1 billion years after the Big Bang. The team used the Gemini South telescope in Chile, and several telescopes on Maunakea in Hawai‘i, to make the discovery. This is the first published scientific result from the Korean astronomical community since the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) joined in a limited partnership with Gemini at the beginning of 2015. The history of objects we see today in the Universe started when the first stars formed a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. However, it has been unclear what types of objects illuminated the intergalactic medium in order to ionize neutral atoms (called the re-ionization of the universe). Quasars, because they are so …

6 November 2015: Project News The Project Science Team met on November 2nd. Discussion included a review of the SDSS software bug database and implications for LSST Operations staffing estimates. Analysis shows that at 5 years after SDSS first light the number of new bugs reported had decreased by a factor of 5. Further, the bug reporting rate was highly correlated with SDSS Data Releases. The LSST Weekly News Digest is now available for self-subscription; see http://lsst.org/news/weekly-digest. Initial subscribers include project members and members of Science Collaborations. The LSST soccer highlight reel from LSST2015 in Bremerton has just been released at http://ls.st/ppa. The Telescope & Site team is having a series of debriefing sessions November 6-12 to share information gained from the recent large procurement reviews: M1M3 Cell, Hexapod/Rotators, TMA, and Dome. The Data Management (DM) Leadership Team will meet in Princeton the week of November 16th and considering how to address several …

2 November 2015: After 18 days of hard work during the recent scheduled maintenance shutdown, the Gemini South telescope is back on the sky! During maintenance, which took place October 13th - 30th, the 8.1-meter primary mirror received a fresh multi-layer protected silver coating - a key task for the shutdown.

30 October 2015: Project News Several members of the Telescope & Site team were out this week finalizing the coating chamber facility bids evaluation. Award is planned for the end of the calendar year. The LSST Operational Proposal Team has been formed with a goal of submitting a proposal for operations funding to the agencies by the end of calendar year 2016. Invited talks were given at the Dark Energy Science Collaboration Meeting and the ADASS Conference this week. LSST also participated with other AURA Centers in the Society for Woman Engineers Conference in New Orleans this week. Registration is now open for the 2016 LSST Joint Technical Meeting on the meeting website. Technical team members from all subsystems and interface groups are expected to attend. LSST Corporation News LSSTC has executed an MOA with the National Research Foundation of South Africa (NRF) who has identified five PIs that will be active participants …

29 October 2015: A team of Norwegian and US astronomers, using data from Gemini North and the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT), have measured the time delay in images of a quasar lensed by a foreground cluster of galaxies. The Gemini observations are the first published result obtained with the innovative Fast Turnaround (FT) mode of observing. A distant quasar may have its light split into multiple images by a foreground galaxy cluster that acts as a gravitational lens. The light travels along different paths of differing lengths to form each of these images. Quasars themselves are intrinsically variable, so the observed fading and brightening of each image happens at different observed times. Measuring these “time delays” yields tight constraints on the mass distribution in the lensing cluster, as well as the lensing geometry, and hence cosmology. The team monitored the redshift z=2.82 quasar SDSS J2222+2745 over the course of three years, using the …

23 October 2015: Project News Five members of the Telescope & Site team traveled to Venice, Italy, last week for a successful preliminary design review of the Dome status with vendor EIE. The LSST M1M3 Mirror Cell contract has been awarded to Arizona-based CAID Industries, Inc. The Camera team is evaluating broadband AR coating samples for the three camera lenses. Acquisition plans for the NCSA Development and Integrations Cluster have been updated to expedite the hardware purchases. The science collaboration (SC) chairs met by phone this week and discussed incorporating scientists from LSST international affiliate institutions into SC activities, augmenting the SC presence on the LSST website, and thinking about science opportunities with the LSST telescope after the ten-year survey is complete. Minutes from the October 5th meeting of the LSST Science Advisory Council (SAC) are now posted; the agenda for the face-to-face meeting in Tucson on 11/16 was discussed. Please contact SAC …

22 October 2015: Gemini Observatory kicked off its week-long program Viaje al Universo with an opening ceremony at the University of La Serena. The annual program is an immersive week of fun, hands-on learning focusing on local students and teachers. Gemini’s invited international guests also joined in the celebration, highlighting their program: The Big Van “Science on Wheels.” “We are thrilled to be able to engage local students and make them laugh, and even though they might not know it, learn science!”, said Alberto Vivó of of the three members of the Big Van troupe. More information about this group can be found at: www.thebigvantheory.com “Gemini is thrilled that we have many new partners in our effort this year,” said Gemini Deputy Director Nancy Levenson. “It is indeed a sign that we are having an impact when our community steps up to participate actively in our work.” The University of La Serena’s Deputy …

21 October 2015: The nearest spiral galaxy with a nuclear starburst (greatly enhanced star formation near a galaxy’s center) is also the site of a long-standing astronomical mystery. Designated NGC 253, or by amateurs as the Silver Dollar Galaxy, the core of this galaxy is so shrouded by gas and dust that the exact location of its core has remained unresolved for years. Now, thanks to research by Guillermo Günthardt of the National University of Cordoba (Argentina), Gemini South infrared data appear to have unambiguously pinpointed the galaxy’s core. In the process, evidence for a lowish-mass, but rapidly growing, black hole as the starburst’s trigger is painting a new picture of this enigmatic galaxy (Figure 1). NGC 253 is the nearest spiral galaxy with a nuclear starburst. The nuclear region is so veiled by large amounts of dust associated to the star formation process that it has been unclear, until now, where this …

16 October 2015: Project News An executive summary of the LSST Monthly Technical Progress Report for August has been submitted to the NSF and posted on our public website: http://lsst.org/news/monthly-progress-updates Telescope and Site team members held a Final Design Review for the Hexapod and Rotator at Moog CSA in Mountain View, CA, earlier this week. The emphasis was on the software, control system, mechanical design and schedule; project response to the vendor is in progress. Key Project Personnel have been asked to extend their travel to the February Joint Technical Meeting to accommodate a half-day retreat for a discussion of Workplace Culture and the implementation of trusted reporting systems including trained ombudspersons. Steve Kahn, Victor Krabbendam, and Beth Willman circulated an LSST Project statement on sexual harassment. Upcoming Meetings with LSST Involvement: November 12, 2015: LSST Workshop, noon @ 47th DPS Meeting, National Harbor, MD November 19-20, 2015: LSST Observing Strategy Retreat, Tucson, …