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.
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AURA, headquartered in Washington D.C., manages world-class astronomical Centers for both the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Our Centers enable the next decade of astronomical discoveries through world-class facilities and science.
NSF NOIRLab is the preeminent U.S. national center for ground-based, nighttime optical and infrared astronomy. NOIRLab enables breakthrough discoveries in astrophysics by developing and operating state-of-the-art observatories and providing data products and services for the astronomical community.
Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) is a multi-mission operations center for NASA’s flagship observatories and a world-class astronomical research center. Operated by AURA for NASA, STScI has helped guide the most famous observatory in history, the Hubble Space Telescope.
The NSF National Solar Observatory (NSO) operates the world’s most extensive collection of ground-based optical and infrared solar telescopes and auxiliary instrumentation, allowing solar physicists to probe all aspects of the Sun.
NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, currently under construction by AURA on Cerro Pachón in Chile, is an 8-meter-class telescope coupled to a 3200 megapixels camera – the world’s largest digital camera ever fabricated for optical astronomy. Rubin Observatory will bring the sky to life and revolutionize the way we explore the cosmos.
Now, researchers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have detected clear evidence that some supermassive black holes were enormous from the beginning, forming without a stellar collapse phase, and without a significantly more massive host galaxy to feed them.
AURA’s mission includes promoting public understanding of our universe and the benefits of scientific exploration. Our talented education and public outreach teams at each of the AURA managed Centers and projects lead this work.
AURA governance committees as of September 30, 2025 AURA Board of Directors Andrew Baker, Vice-ChairElizabeth BartonKaren Bjorkman, ChairEmily CoBabe-Ammann, Chair of the SOCKelle Cruz, Chair of the NMOCRoger DaviesMegan DonahueBrenna Flaugher, Chair of the AMCRLeopoldo InfanteDan JaffeJames McAteerMatt Mountain, Ex OfficioSally OeyJerome OglesbyDavid ReitzeWillie Rockward, Chair of the STICMonica Rubio AURA Management Council forthe Rubin […]
AURA was founded in 1957, with the encouragement of the National Science Foundation, by a group of U.S. universities with a common interest to create astronomical observing facilities that would be available for use by all qualified researchers from U.S. institutions and universities on the basis of scientific merit. Today, there are 49 U.S. Member […]
The 8.1-meter Gemini North telescope, located on the summit of Maunakea in Hawai‘i, has captured NGC 1514, nicknamed the Crystal Ball Nebula, in awe-inspiring detail.
In late April astronomers from across the U.S. and Chile gathered in Tucson, Arizona for the 2026 AURA Annual Meeting. Held each Spring, the meeting brings together representatives from AURA’s 51 member institutions to elect governance positions, discuss astronomy topics, attend open houses, network with colleagues, interact with AURA leadership, and share science results.
One of the core community surveys of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, the Galactic Bulge Time-Domain Survey, is expected to locate over a thousand exoplanets that orbit far away from their stars, beyond the orbital distance of Earth from the Sun.
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