Press Releases

12 September 2024: Photons, neutrinos, cosmic rays and gravitational waves all carry information about the Universe. Multi-messenger astronomy brings together these four signals to investigate astronomical events from multiple cosmic perspectives. With its sensitive camera and suite of filters, NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory will increase the population of known multi-messenger sources by obtaining crucial color information and localizing events for follow-up observations by other telescopes.

14 August 2024: The Dark Energy Camera captures an image of the dazzling Coma Cluster, named after the hair of Queen Berenice II of Egypt. Not only significant in Greek mythology, this collection of galaxies was also fundamental to the discovery of the existence of dark matter. The theory emerged in 1937 when Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky noticed that the Coma Cluster galaxies behaved as if they were under the influence of vast amounts of unobservable ‘dark’ matter.

1 August 2024: Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s 3.5-meter secondary mirror has been installed on the Simonyi Survey Telescope on Cerro Pachón in Chile. The glass mirror — made by Corning Advanced Optics and polished by L3Harris Technologies — is the first permanent component of the telescope’s state-of-the-art, wide-field optical system to be installed and will soon contribute to a better understanding of our Universe.

17 July 2024: Using the WIYN 3.5-meter telescope at the U.S. National Science Foundation Kitt Peak National Observatory, a Program of NSF NOIRLab, astronomers have discovered the extreme orbit of an exoplanet that’s on its way to becoming a hot Jupiter. This exoplanet not only follows one of the most drastically stretched-out orbits of all known transiting exoplanets but is also orbiting its star backwards, lending insight into the mystery of how hot Jupiters evolve.

15 July 2024: Too big to be planets but too small to be stars, distant brown dwarfs are a key ingredient for understanding the history of the Milky Way. Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time will detect a population of ancient brown dwarfs about 20 times bigger than we’ve previously seen, revealing the processes that shaped our home galaxy.

25 June 2024: A festive array of bright pinks and blues makes for a remarkable sight in this image captured with the Gemini North telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory. Resembling a cloud of cosmic confetti, this image is being released in celebration of Gemini North’s 25th anniversary. NGC 4449 is a prime example of starburst activity caused by the interacting and mingling of galaxies as it slowly absorbs its smaller galactic neighbors.

17 June 2024: With the help of the powerful GNIRS instrument on the Gemini North telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, supported in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation and operated by NSF NOIRLab, a team of astronomers have discovered a double-record-breaking pair of quasars. Not only are they the most distant pair of merging quasars ever found, but also the only pair confirmed in the bygone era of the Universe’s earliest formation.

28 May 2024: More than 70 NOIRLab staff volunteers welcomed hundreds of visitors from the Tohono O’odham Nation to Kitt Peak National Observatory to enjoy a night of telescope viewings, cultural performances, and educational activities.

22 May 2024: The largest camera ever built for astrophysics has completed the long journey from SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California to the summit of Cerro Pachón in Chile, where it will soon help unlock the mysteries of the Universe.

6 May 2024: The dark, dusty cometary globule known as CG 4 is spotlighted in this image from the Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera mounted on the U.S. National Science Foundation Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, a Program of NSF NOIRLab. How these hard-to-detect clouds get their distinctive structure is still unclear, but astronomers speculate that it’s a consequence of the hot, massive stars that surround them.

30 April 2024: With its shiny, new silver coating, Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s 8.4-meter primary/tertiary mirror is one step closer to revolutionizing the way astronomers capture and study the Universe. Both mirrors will soon be installed on the Simonyi Survey Telescope where they will collect the light of distant celestial objects and events during the 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), beginning in 2025.

29 April 2024: Using the Gemini South telescope a team of astronomers have confirmed for the first time that differences in binary stars’ composition can originate from chemical variations in the cloud of stellar material from which they formed. The results help explain why stars born from the same molecular cloud can possess different chemical composition and host different planetary systems, as well as pose challenges to current stellar and planet formation models.

15 April 2024: Glittering threads of stars around the Milky Way may hold answers to one of our biggest questions about the Universe: what is dark matter? With images taken through six different color filters mounted to the largest camera ever built for astronomy and astrophysics, Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s upcoming Legacy Survey of Space and Time will reveal never-before-seen stellar streams around the Milky Way — and the telltale effects of their interactions with dark matter.

4 April 2024: The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument is conducting a five-year survey to create the largest 3D map of the Universe ever. Astronomers are now performing initial analysis of the survey’s first-year data. Using spectra of nearby galaxies and distant quasars, astronomers report that they have measured the expansion history of the Universe with the highest precision ever, providing an unprecedented look at the nature of dark energy and its effect on the Universe's large-scale structure.

3 April 2024: The world’s largest digital camera for astronomy is complete. Once in place on a telescope in Chile, the LSST Camera will gather an unprecedented amount of data about our Universe, yielding new insights into everything from dark energy to asteroids.

12 March 2024: With the powerful, 570-megapixel Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera (DECam), astronomers have constructed a massive 1.3-gigapixel image showcasing the central part of the Vela Supernova Remnant, the cosmic corpse of a gigantic star that exploded as a supernova. DECam is one of the highest-performing wide-field imaging instruments in the world and is mounted on the US National Science Foundation's Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab.

29 February 2024: Using archival data from the Gemini North telescope, a team of astronomers have measured the heaviest pair of supermassive black holes ever found. The merging of two supermassive black holes is a phenomenon that has long been predicted, though never observed. This massive pair gives clues as to why such an event seems so unlikely in the Universe.

7 February 2024: Vera C. Rubin Observatory will help scientists identify intriguing targets to prioritize for future space missions by detecting millions of new Solar System objects, and by revealing — in more detail than we’ve ever seen — the broader context in which these objects exist. Additionally, Rubin may alert scientists to the existence of objects like asteroids, comets, or visiting interstellar objects in time to determine their trajectories and prepare space missions to study them.

29 January 2024: Journey Through the Universe — a partnership between the International Gemini Observatory, operated by NSF’s NOIRLab, and the Hawaiʻi Department of Education Hilo-Waiākea Complex Area — celebrates 20 years of cosmic exploration with Hawai‘i students and the community. This year’s exciting program includes classroom presentations, career panels, public events and more!

25 January 2024: The lenticular galaxy NGC 4753, captured by the Gemini South telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory operated by NSF’s NOIRLab, is a truly remarkable object. Its prominent and complex network of dust lanes that twist around its galactic nucleus define its ‘peculiar’ classification and are the likely result of a galactic merger with a nearby dwarf galaxy about 1.3 billion years ago.