NOIRLab

Press Releases

Rubin’s 8.4-meter Primary/tertiary Mirror with Reflective Coating

Organization Release: 30 April 2024 — noirlab2411

Rubin Observatory Achieves Another Major Milestone: Reflective Coating of the 8.4-meter Primary/Tertiary Mirror

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.

Artist’s Impression of a Giant-Giant Binary

Science Release: 29 April 2024 — noirlab2410

Gemini South Reveals Origin of Unexpected Differences in Giant Binary Stars

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.

Artist’s Impression: Stellar streams in and around the Milky Way

Organization Release: 15 April 2024 — noirlab2409

Rubin Observatory Will Reveal Dark Matter’s Ghostly Disruptions of Stellar Streams

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.

Artistic Composition of DESI Year-One Data Slice Above the Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope

Organization Release: 4 April 2024 — noirlab2408

DESI Looks 11 Billion Years Into the Past to Reveal Most Detailed View Ever of the Expanding Universe

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.

Organization Release: 3 April 2024 — noirlab2407

Construction of Largest Digital Camera Ever Built for Astronomy Completed

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.