Letter from AURA President Matt Mountain
As President of AURA, I have been privileged to be part of a truly transformational period in astronomy. Together with all of AURA’s Centers, we have embarked on groundbreaking projects that are expanding our understanding of the Universe and, closer to home, revealing how the Sun’s magnetic fields channel energy into flares and heat the corona.
At our ground-based astronomical center, NSF NOIRLab, the new NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile is transitioning to operations. In June 2025, we celebrated Rubin’s first images, an exciting preview of what is to come from its Legacy Survey of Space and Time. Just during those first observations Rubin identified 4,000 new asteroids. In Hawai‘i, Gemini North discovered the long-predicted stellar companion of Betelgeuse using the ‘Alopeke instrument. Back in Arizona on Kitt Peak, our partners at the Department of Energy used the Mayall Telescope to produce intriguing results from the first three years of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument. Those results suggest that dark energy, widely thought to be a cosmological constant, may actually be evolving over time.
At the Space Telescope Science Institute, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope continues to excite astronomers and inspire the public with its remarkable observations and images. Webb has observed the farthest galaxy known to date, revealed massive early galaxies, probed the atmospheres of exoplanets, and discovered a new moon orbiting Uranus. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope celebrated its 35th year in space in April, and it remains in high demand, delivering cutting-edge science and spectacular images. NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, almost ready for launch, will investigate our solar neighborhood and galaxy and probe the mysteries of dark energy and dark matter at near-infrared wavelengths.
At NSF National Solar Observatory, the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawai‘i, the most powerful solar telescope on the planet, continues to deliver unprecedented high-resolution images of the Sun and the plasma entrained in its complex magnetic fields. These stunning results are giving us new insights into the origins of solar flares and space weather. NSO also received funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation to begin designing the next-generation global network of solar telescopes, ngGONG, which will replace the existing 30-year-old GONG network.
These are just a few examples of the scientific and technological advances from the facilities managed by AURA. This impressive flow of discoveries is a testament to the ingenuity of the scientific communities we support, the dedication and expertise of our talented staff, and the sustained commitment of our agency partners at NSF, NASA, and the Department of Energy Office of Science. It is this extraordinary collaboration that enables AURA’s facilities to operate at a unique scale in observational astrophysics, producing 2,000 refereed publications last year alone. Those papers represent contributions from a substantial share of the global professional community — fulfilling our mission to provide open access to world-class facilities, tools, and resources that enable discovery and excellence in astrophysics and solar physics.
Though past performance is not always a reliable guide, if this past year is any indication, I, for one, cannot wait to see what the future holds for astronomical discovery.
