NSF NOIRLab, funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, has completed end-to-end runs of its ecosystem for following up on alerts from NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory. The runs demonstrated how multiple NOIRLab-developed software tools, plus a network of telescopes around the globe, will enable quick follow-up observations of the countless transient objects that Rubin will uncover during its ten-year survey.
About: Shari
Recent Posts by Shari
Observations from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope—built and managed by the NSF National Solar Observatory (NSF NSO) on Maui, Hawai‘i—are now offering a closer look than ever before.
Two heads are better than one in the latest images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, which reveal new detail in a mysterious, little-studied nebula surrounding a dying star.
NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory has issued its first scientific alerts, marking a historic milestone in astrophysics. Expected to increase to seven million alerts per night, these first alerts start a new era of dynamic, real-time observation of the night sky.
This stunning image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope reveals a dramatic interplay of light and shadow in the Egg Nebula, sculpted by freshly ejected stardust. Located approximately 1,000 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus, the Egg Nebula features a central star obscured by a dense cloud of dust — like a “yolk” nestled within a dark, opaque “egg white.”
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has topped itself once again, delivering on its promise to push the boundaries of the observable universe closer to cosmic dawn with the confirmation of a bright galaxy that existed 280 million years after the big bang. By now Webb has established that it will eventually surpass virtually every benchmark it sets in these early years, but the newly confirmed galaxy, MoM-z14, holds intriguing clues to the universe’s historical timeline and just how different a place the early universe was than astronomers expected.
When the Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG) began operations in 1995, it was designed to run for just three years. Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and operated by the NSF National Solar Observatory (NSF NSO), the goal was focused and finite: build a global network of telescopes capable of measuring vibrations on the Sun’s surface and use them to probe the solar interior, at a time when the field of helioseismology was still coming into its own.
The Dark Energy Survey Collaboration collected information on hundreds of millions of galaxies across the Universe using the U.S. Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera, mounted on the U.S. National Science Foundation Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at CTIO, a Program of NSF NOIRLab. Their completed analysis combines all six years of data for the first time and yields constraints on the Universe’s expansion history that are twice as tight as past analyses.
Astronomers using the Gemini South telescope achieve unprecedented detection of vaporized metals within a dusty, gaseous cloud during rare stellar occultation.
Interim Deputy Director, Space Telescope Science Institute Dr. Osten has been a member of the STScI science staff since 2008 and is currently a Full Astronomer with Tenure. She has served in numerous roles in that time, most recently as Head of the Instruments Division. She is internationally recognized as an expert in the study […]
First peer-reviewed paper using LSST Camera data identifies an asteroid, nearly the size of eight football fields, rotating every two minutes.
A team using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered a new type of astronomical object — a starless, gas-rich, dark-matter cloud considered a “relic” or remnant of early galaxy formation. Nicknamed “Cloud-9,” this is the first confirmed detection of such an object in the universe — a finding that furthers the understanding of galaxy formation, the early universe, and the nature of dark matter itself.
Like a game of cosmic bumper cars, scientists think the early days of our solar system were a time of violent turmoil, with planetesimals, asteroids, and comets smashing together and pelting the Earth, Moon, and the other inner planets with debris. Now, in a historical milestone, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has directly imaged similar catastrophic collisions in a nearby planetary system around another star, Fomalhaut.
In 2024, astronomers discovered the brightest Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient (LFBOT) ever observed. LFBOTs are extremely bright flashes of blue light that shine for brief periods before fading away. New analysis of this record-breaking burst, which includes observations from the International Gemini Observatory, funded in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation, challenges all prior understanding of these rare explosive events.
Scientists using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have observed a rare type of exoplanet, or planet outside our solar system, whose atmospheric composition challenges our understanding of how it formed.
Recent Comments by Shari
No comments by Shari yet.