2024 YR4 aside (no, it will NOT kill you), we should give asteroids their proper due. Asteroids are clues left over from the early Solar System, and contain presolar grains (crystals that predate the Sun and planets). Asteroids (the NEOs-… Read More »Happy Asteroid Day!
Clearly, no shortage of press about the Vera Rubin Observatory, but: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/23/science/rubin-telescope-asteroids.htmKenneth Chang Jun 23 Vera Rubin Telescope Quickly Found 1,200 New Asteroids …this one’s of particular relevance here. There was a Times story on Vera Rubin in general, and… Read More »Vera Rubin Upholding
The press conference for the first release of images from the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory just wrapped. Granted, the embargo lifted at midnight this morning, so news outlets already posted their stories with the two ‘glamour shots’. Still, there… Read More »Vera Rubin Release: M49, Trifid/Lagoon
No shortage of coverage for Vera Rubin, but… https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2025-06-22/vera-rubin-observatory-universe-never-before/105442694Ellen Phiddian The Vera C Rubin Observatory is about to show us the universe like never before …this one is abc-relevant, and I don’t mean the publisher. ABC is Australia’s equivalent of the… Read More »Vera Rubin Down Under
You know the Vera Rubin Observatory is still a big deal when it make the New York Times. www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/06/19/science/rubin-observatory-camera.htmlJonathan Corum, Kenneth Chang Jun 19 Earth’s Largest Camera Takes 3 Billion-Pixel Images of the Night Sky Not as in-depth as the Science… Read More »Vera Rubin Uptown
Cover of Science. You know the Vera Rubin Observatory is a big deal when it makes the cover of Science magazine. In vol. 388, issue 6753 (19 June 2025): https://www.science.org/content/article/giant-all-seeing-telescope-set-revolutionize-astronomyDaniel Clery 18 Jun All-seeing eye p. 1256 10.1126/science.z3ptiml https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adz8351Daniel Clery … Read More »Vera Rubin Of Late
Just over a week until the Vera Rubin Observatory’s First Look Event, June 23 (online presentation at 11:00 am Eastern Time). Observatory testing and calibration has peaked, and is now wrapping up loose ends, since… the remaining tasks are becoming… Read More »Vera Rubin Update (Mid-Jun 2025)
On the flip side… as part of the “American Women” quarters series, the U.S. Mint has issued a quarter-dollar coin celebrating the life and work of the codiscoverer of dark matter in galaxies, Vera Rubin. buff.ly/lyog709 https://www.usmint.gov/american-women-quarters-2025-rolls-and-bags-dr-vera-rubin-MASTER_AWQVR.html A bit more… Read More »Quarter? More Like Leader
Commissioning of the Vera Rubin Observatory (Simonyi Telescope, LSSTCam, etc.) continues apace. Aside from glitches with a few CCDs in the detector array, and the Camera cooling system, things are looking good. How good? An outside review panel has surveyed… Read More »Vera Rubin Update: First Look Event
A quick story in the journal Science: https://www.science.org/content/article/china-sets-out-sample-unusual-near-earth-asteroid Dennis Normile China sets out to sample an unusual near-Earth asteroid .z2q2idq Normile describes the Chinese Tianwen-2 mission and its target, the Earth-resonant asteroid (469219) Kamo’oalewa. The asteroid has the unusual property… Read More »Out of Ecliptic, In Patch