Announcements 2016

20 September 2016: Astronomers studying a mysterious phenomenon known as Lyman-alpha blobs (LABs) have discovered several of these high-energy objects in galaxies that are much closer than previously known. The discovery is significant because these closer specimens are much easier to study, and because they live at a time when the Universe was much older and more mature, allowing astronomers to study their evolution with cosmic time. The observations are of a rare type of relatively nearby galaxy, engulfed in large clouds of ionized gas as a result of violent, energetic activity in their cores. These closer specimens were first described in 2013, catching the astronomers’ attention with their luminosities and sizes. Data taken with the Gemini Observatory quickly revealed that these galaxies are unparalleled by any other objects known in the nearby Universe. To understand their nature and formation, observations with the Chandra X-ray observatory, the GALEX UV satellite, and the mid-infrared …

19 September 2016: The red color near the north pole of Charon, Pluto’s largest moon, originates on Pluto. Once a mystery, it now appears that the red color of “Mordor Macula” arises as methane gas escapes from Pluto’s atmosphere and freezes onto the icy surface of Charon’s north pole. UV light from the Sun then transforms the methane into reddish organic materials. The New Horizons team that reported this result includes NOAO astronomer Tod Lauer.

16 September 2016: Project News Members of the Tucson-based Data Management team participated remotely in the NCSA monthly software engineering seminar this week. Their presentations have been uploaded to the Zenodo LSST DM Community and are available to anyone interested: Let's Talk About Docs by Jonathan Sick LSST Data Management Software Development by Tim Jenness. LSST hosted a fun and productive Citizen Science Summit this past week with multiple guests, including: Chris Lintott and Laura Trouille (Zooniverse), Jennifer Shirk (Citizen Science Association), Rob Semper (Exploratorium), Sander Dieleman (Google DeepMind), Jeff Carlin (LSST), and many more. Ideas and notes were captured on both the Community site and Google Docs. LSST EPO looks forward to continuing the conversation and building relationships with the citizen science community in the years to come! With the Early Registration Deadline of September 25th approaching, we remind you of three LSST-related events taking place at the January 2017 meeting of …

12 September 2016: Astronomers have discovered ultra-faint stellar systems in the direction of the Sagittarius stream, the stream of stars that is being pulled out of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy as it orbits our own Milky Way galaxy. Similar in size to globular clusters but much fainter, the new stellar systems straddle the fuzzy boundary between dwarf galaxies and stellar clusters. The discovery was made by a team of astronomers using data from the Dark Energy Survey being carried out at CTIO. Team members include NOAO astronomers Kathy Vivas, Tim Abbott, David James, Chris Smith, and Alistair Walker.

9 September 2016: Project News Jorge Vergara and Francisco Forster are visiting the University of Washington (UW) from the Center for Mathematical Modeling at the University of Chile. Jorge and Francisco are working with Colin Slater and Andy Connolly on developing new machine learning techniques for identifying artifacts within difference images (separating the wheat from the chaff). Jorge will be visiting UW until the end of September. The AURA Management Council for LSST (AMCL) will meet in Tucson next week to provide oversight and advocacy for the management of the LSST. Also next week there will be a Manufacturing Readiness Review (MRR) of the LSST Camera Science Raft Sub-system at Brookhaven National Laboratory. This MRR is a follow-on to two previous FDR-level reviews in 2015, meant to target recent updates to the electro-mechanical design of the Raft Tower Module as well as the Science Raft subsystem’s readiness to procure, fabricate and assemble the …

2 September 2016: Project News Plenary sessions and the public talk from LSST2016 have been posted on the LSST YouTube channel and linked to the LSST Image Gallery / Videos category. Presentations from the Data Management group at LSST2016 have been uploaded to the LSST collection on zenodo as described in this the LSST Community Forum post; see the section titled Presentations. LSST EPO will be hosting an informal, online Citizen Science Summit with special guest Chris Lintott (Zooniverse) on September 12 & 13. If this topic interests you, please join us (locally or remote) and participate in the conversation! More details can be found here. REOSC has been awarded a contract for the Broad Band Anti-reflection coating to be applied to the L1, L2 and L3 camera lenses. This coating minimizes light reflection at the air/fused silica interface for each lens and improves the overall throughput while reducing straylight. A kickoff meeting …

2 September 2016: The September 2016 NOAO Newsletter is online and ready to download. It contains sections on Science Highlights, System Science Capabilities, System Observing: Telescopes and Instruments, and NOAO Operations & Staff. On the Cover This map, created using the NOAO Data Lab Data Discovery Tool, shows the total exposure in science frames taken with any of the DECam, or KPNO and CTIO Mosaic imagers. The sky has been rotated to center on the Dark Energy Survey “footprint.”

26 August 2016: Project News The Data Management team has made significant progress with its support of Python 3, up to and including the afw library (the core library of astronomical routines that the LSST stack makes use of). This is a major step towards supporting both Python 2.7 and 3.x versions of the language. More details on the Python 3 compatibility effort, look here. A new Operations Simulator (OpSim) Reference Simulated Survey, minion_1016, has been approved and placed under change control. This Reference Run replaces opsim3.61 and is an updated demonstration of the primary capabilities of the OpSim v3.3.5 codebase. For more information, start here. The Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network has been awarded funding through the NSF MSIP program to offer access to the U.S. community “to effectively follow-up on current time domain surveys … and to help the community prepare for time domain research in the LSST era by …

19 August 2016: Project News The LSST2016 Project & Community Workshop is wrapping up as we go to press with today’s Digest. Plenary sessions were recorded and will be made available online; group photo can be found here. The LSST Science Advisory Committee (SAC) met face-to-face on Monday, August 15, discussing survey strategy, the deep drilling fields, community time to be available through Las Cumbres Observatory and its relevance for LSST planning, and the LSST Science User Interface. The SAC is preparing a series of recommendations to the Project Office on these and related topics. Next year’s Project & Community Workshop will take place the week of August 14th, 2017, in Tucson, AZ. Mark your calendars now for LSST2017! Corporation News LSSTC shares the sad news that Richard F. Caris, a friend and enthusiastic supporter of the LSST project, died on August 9th at his home in Scottsdale, Arizona. He was 81. Richard’s …

19 August 2016: Astronomers using data from the Kepler spacecraft have discovered five planets in orbit around a nearby bright star. The planets have orbital periods ranging from 15 days to 1 year and sizes from 2.5 times the radius of the Earth to approximately the size of Jupiter. Because the central star is bright, future transit observations may be able to characterize the atmospheres of the planets. The Robo-AO adaptive optics system on the Kitt Peak 2.1m telescope was used to rule out a non-planetary origin for the transit signals.

16 August 2016: Gemini explores the possibility of short-lived optical emission (visible light) from the violent events that produce gravitational waves. Even before the announcement of the first gravitational wave detection by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in February of this year, theorists wondered if the extreme energy required to produce strong gravitational waves might also produce a detectable optical flash. Currently the most widely accepted explanation for gravitational wave events is the collision of black holes. The impact would send gravitational waves rippling through space at the speed of light. Thanks to LIGO the existence of gravitational waves is now confirmed, but unknown is the extent to which they might be accompanied by the emission of optical light or radiation at higher energies such as x-ray or gamma-rays. A recent study headed by Stephen Smartt at Queen’s University in Belfast and Ken Chambers from University of Hawai‘i could help answer this …

12 August 2016: Project News The Project team has been busy this past week preparing for next week’s LSST2016 Project & Community Workshop and concurrent DOE/NSF Joint Status Review. Almost 300 people have registered for the week-long Workshop. LSST2016 will feature a Public Talk on Wednesday, August 17th, by Dr. Lucianne Walkowicz. The talk will be recorded and made available online for those not able to attend in person. Cosmologist Risa Wechsler explains how LSST will contribute to our understanding of dark matter and dark energy in this three-minute video and twitter conversation presented as part of the #AskSymmetry video series. Corporation News The LSSTC Data Science Fellowship Program (LSSTC DSFP) is a two-year training program, designed to teach astronomy graduate students essential skills for dealing with big data from LSST. LSSTC Member Institutions may apply to host a session of the LSSTC DSFP by completing the online application. LSSTC DSFP applicant review …

9 August 2016: The 3-D spectroscopic sky-mapping project, DESI (Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument), has received formal approval from the US Department of Energy to begin construction. Installation at the Kitt Peak Mayall telescope will begin in 2017. Designed to measure the role of dark energy in the expansion history of the Universe, DESI will measure the redshifts of more than 30 million galaxies and quasars and create a map of the Universe out to a distance of 10 billion light years.

5 August 2016: Project News A joint AURA/SLAC review of the progress of LSST construction was held at SLAC on July 27-29. Co-chaired by Fred Gilman for AURA and Carl Strawbridge for SLAC, this review was preparatory and had a very similar structure to the NSF/DOE LSST Status Review that will be held mid-August. Overall, the LSST is within a few percent of the planned schedule and cost and the project team's performance received a strong endorsement. Many recommendations were made by the reviewers, with particular attention to the data management portion of the project, where both an in-progress replan and search for a new data management lead should be completed in the next few months. The closeout report was positive with the committee reporting the Project is close to schedule and under budget. Three members of the Telescope & Site team are in Germany this week, visiting the the Von Ardenne GmbH …

29 July 2016: Project News It’s quiet around the LSST Project Office in Tucson this week, as all subsystems are represented at the Director’s Review of Project Status at SLAC, a warm-up for the NSF/DOE Joint Status Review taking place in Tucson, August 16 – 18. Registration for the LSST Project and Community Workshop 2016 (LSST 2016) has closed, with 250+ registered participants. In addition to the project and community sessions and the Joint Status Review, plans for the annual soccer matches and a public lecture/mixer/star party are coming together. Snowy weather on Cerro Pachón caused a one-day slowdown in construction activities; regular activity has resumed. Check the webcam to see amazing progress on the summit, as well as the beautiful winter weather and sunsets. And interact with the 3D model of the summit construction, built from data taken by Jacque Sebag with our DJI phantom 3 pro drone in February 2016. LSST …

22 July 2016: Project News Registration for the LSST Project and Community Workshop 2016 (LSST 2016) stands at 230 participants, and closes TODAY for both the workshop and hotel block (although we’ll keep it open through Monday for last minute registrations). The registration page is here. All subsystems are consumed with preparations for the NSF/DOE Joint Status Review. A Director’s Review, essentially a dry run, will be held at SLAC next week in advance of the actual review August 16 – 18 in Tucson. We’ve just received word that the LSST Town Hall at AAS 229 is scheduled for Wednesday, 4 January 2017. This Town Hall will describe the complimentary missions of the LSST Project, LSST Corporation, and LSST Science Collaborations, highlighting ways for community members to get involved in LSST now, and soliciting community feedback. LSST is making plans to hold community workshop at the DPS 48 / EPSC 11 Meeting in …

15 July 2016: Project News Registration for LSST2016 stands at over 200, with deadlines for both registration and access to the LSST discounted hotel block extended one week and closing on July 22nd. Registration page is here. Telescope & Site Manager Bill Gressler is traveling this week, first visiting Harris in Rochester, NY for the monthly status review on the secondary mirror and mirror cell, and then to PFlow Industry in Oak Creek, WI, for final acceptance testing of the Pflow vertical lift, the big “elevator” that will be used to transport the LSST primary/tertiary mirror from the observing floor to the maintenance area in the summit facility building. A number of science grade sensors have been received by the camera team and are undergoing acceptance testing at BNL. In addition, two reviews take place at SLAC next week including a corner raft Manufacturing Readiness Review. Data Management: Version 12.0 of the LSST …

8 July 2016: Project News LSST was well represented at the 2016 SPIE meeting on Astronomical Telescopes & Instrumentation in Edinburgh, Scotland last week with more than 40 LSST-related oral and poster presentations as well as an LSST booth in the exhibition hall. More information and images here. Feedback to the Workplace Culture plenary session at the LSST 2015 Project and Community Workshop included requests for concrete advice on how to improve workplace culture. In response, we have developed a special session scheduled for LSST 2016 at 9am on Tuesday, August 16: Rules of Engagement in Workplace Culture: How to Improve Trust & Communication - Trust and communication are essential factors to the success of any organization. This interactive plenary will address issues related to engaging others within the workplace, giving and receiving feedback, using feedback as a tool for self-awareness and accountability, and building trust in our work relationships. Registration for LSST2016 …

7 July 2016: Two new Kuiper Belt objects, 2014 FZ71 and 2015 FJ345, are among the most distant bodies in the Solar System. They are always further than 50AU from the Sun, and only Sedna and 2012 VP113 have larger perihelia. The discovery was made using data from DECam on the Blanco 4-m telescope at CTIO.

24 June 2016: Project News Many members of the LSST technical teams will be in Edinburgh, Scotland next week for an SPIE meeting on Astronomical Telescopes & Instrumentation; more than 40 LSST-related papers will be presented. Those interested are reminded that the LSST 2016 Project & Community Workshop registration deadline is July 25, same as the deadline for reserving a hotel room. The Tuesday agenda has changed to include an LSST Summary and Status plenary of interest to all as well as encore presentations by LSST team members returning from next week’s SPIE meeting. Now that the M1M3 mirror cell has been stress relieved, the cell has been relocated to the CAID Industries precision machining center. In parallel, the next effort will focus on completion of the M1M3 cart. The cart rides along embedded steel rails and will be used to transport the integrated mirror and cell system from the telescope to the …