NSF NOIRLab

That moment when everything clicks! ✨ Meet the Commissioning Camera! 📷🌌 Rubin Observatory has achieved a major milestone with the first end-to-end on-sky test of the full Rubin telescope system. Starlight was captured, data was transferred to a US Data Facility at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and appeared in a digital image! 🎉 Read more in the announcement: https://lnkd.in/e-Twu_nc 📷: RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/NSF/DOE/AURA

Discover the combined power of two telescopes! The #USELTP will provide unique access to the entire sky with a level of precision and sensitivity never seen before, offering great synergy with other facilities in space and on the ground. Read more 👇 https://ow.ly/gMFO50TVt6g 📷 US-ELTP (TIO/NOIRLab/GMTO)

A cosmic ghost 👻🌌 Millions of years ago a giant cloud of gas and dust collapsed, forming the Rosette Nebula, seen here in this spooky black-and-white image captured by the Curtis Schmidt telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF NOIRLab. At the center of the nebula, stellar winds from hot, young stars have blown a hole in the surrounding material — a cosmic shot through the heart. 📷: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA #astronomy #halloween #nebula #telescope

🌕✨ Lunar Eclipse Alert! 🌑🔭 Check out this stunning image of the Gemini North telescope captured in 2019. Can you spot the lunar eclipse happening on the right side? Lunar eclipses occur when Earth moves between the Sun and the Moon. The Moon, which is only visible by the sunlight reflected off it, is darkened by the Earth’s shadow. Download this high resolution image here: https://ow.ly/827a50TS2Fj Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. Chu #astronomy #moon #lunareclipse #hawaii #telescope

What goes on inside a telescope? 🤔 These timelapses of Gemini North show the telescope rotating to make observations. The laser is part of an adaptive optics system that creates an artificial star with known properties. The system measures how atmospheric distortions are affecting the star, allowing the telescope to make corrections to its observations. This ensures we are getting the sharpest possible views of the Universe 🌌! 📷: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/S. Goebel

✨ Can you spot all the galaxies in this cosmic masterpiece? 🌌 NGC 1270 is stealing the show at the center with its mesmerizing glow, but it's just one of thousands in the Perseus Cluster, a group of galaxies that lies around 240 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Perseus. 🌠 This image, taken at the Gemini North telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, funded in part by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and operated by NSF NOIRLab captures a dazzling collection of galaxies in the central region of this enormous cluster. https://lnkd.in/e_zR6G2K Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/ Image Processing: J. Miller & M. Rodriguez (International Gemini Observatory/NSF NOIRLab), T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF NOIRLab), M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab) Acknowledgements: PI: Jisu Kang (Seoul National University) #astronomy #galaxy #science #universe

A stunning view of the Milky Way above Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory! Did you know that CTIO, operated by NSF NOIRLab hosts around 40 telescopes from 11 tenant observatories and research projects Shown here are many of the facilities operated by Las Cumbres Observatory, including the three Las Cumbres Observatory 1-meter Telescopes (left) and the ‘igloo’ for an echelle spectrograph (center) . The Planetary Defense 1.3-meter Telescope is on the right. Download this image here: https://lnkd.in/eQPWwdDM Petr Horálek, the photographer, is a NOIRLab Audiovisual Ambassador CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Horálek (Institute of Physics in Opava), M. Kosari

We’re thrilled to announce that last Friday Rubin Observatory celebrated a dedication ceremony for the Simonyi Survey Telescope! 🤩 The dedication ceremony recognizes the important financial support of Charles and Lisa Simonyi through the Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences, which provided a $20 million gift in 2008 that enabled construction of the telescope’s mirrors. This event was held at the Rubin Observatory Summit Facility on Cerro Pachón in Chile and was attended by the Simonyi family, Rubin Observatory leadership, representatives of NSF and DOE, and other guests. Rubin Observatory, with the Simonyi Survey Telescope and LSST Camera at its core, is poised to give us the fullest, most exquisitely detailed view of the cosmos to date. Once online in 2025, it will be operated by NSF NOIRLab and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and conduct the 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), capturing unprecedented images of the night sky and enabling transformational discoveries. Read more in the press release: https://lnkd.in/ex_k_u57 📷: RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/NSF/DOE/AURA/M. Paredes 📷: RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/NSF/DOE/AURA/A. Pizarro D.

🌌 Celebrating 5 years of groundbreaking discoveries at NOIRLab! 🎉On June 2020, astronomers discovered the second most distant quasar ever found, using the international Gemini Observatory and National Science Foundation (NSF) Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. ✨ It is also the first quasar to receive an indigenous Hawaiian name, Pōniuāʻena. The quasar contains a monster black hole ⚫, twice the mass of the black hole in the only other quasar found at the same epoch, challenging the current theories of supermassive black hole formation and growth in the early Universe 🤯. Read more: https://lnkd.in/ef8dg2qN Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Marenfeld #astronomy #quasar #science #telescope

Look up, way up ✨! The Milky Way flows across the southern hemisphere’s night sky in this image of Gemini South, one half of the International Gemini Observatory. Supported in part by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and operated by NSF NOIRLab, Gemini South resides on the summit of Cerro Pachón in Chile 🇨🇱. 🔭Gemini South is operating its laser guide star, which is used by its advanced adaptive optics system to reduce the blurring of images that’s caused by Earth’s atmosphere. ✨Can you some iconic constellations? Centaurus, Crux, and Canis Major can be spotted in this image. 🌀To the left of Gemini South under the Milky Way are two satellite galaxies, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. Petr Horálek, the photographer, is a NOIRLab Audiovisual Ambassador. Download the high resolution version of this image here: https://lnkd.in/ejmvjF3r Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Horálek (Institute of Physics in Opava) #astronomy #telescope #science #universe