As of this week (Oct. 28), the Vera Rubin Observatory staff has declared the project “construction complete”, and begun operations (“Early Operations”, to be explicit). In physical terms, this doesn’t mean much. In legal terms, this means that telescope checkouts… Read More »Vera Rubin Ready!
It’s the day before Halloween, but Space Sci Rev (vol. 221) makes it feel like Christmas: Horányi, M. Tucker, S. Sternovsky, Z. et al. Interstellar Dust Experiment (IDEX) OnboardNASA’s Interstellar Mapping And Acceleration Probe (IMAP) art. 102 s11214-025-01230-1Wang, Y. Zhang,… Read More »Space Science Reviews, …whew
Of late, in Planetary Science Journal (all vol.6): Salazar Manzano, L. E. Gerdes, D. W. Napier, K. J. et al. Prospects of a New L5 Trojan Flyby Target for the Lucy Mission 213 adf5c2Dorsey, R. C. Hopkins, M. J. Bannister,… Read More »Note, Paper: PSJ Particle Population Post
In case you hadn’t already marked your calendar: the Rubin Users Committee will meet on Monday: https://rubinobservatory.org/events/rubin-users-committee-2025a-meeting Rubin Users Committee 2025B Meeting, Oct 27, 8 AM – 10 AM PDT This is your chance to give feedback on initial performance,… Read More »Vera Rubin Users Meeting, Monday
Everybody’s getting in on planetary science; LPSC was the first but is no longer the only game in ‘town’. The Planetary Science Conference 2025 starts tomorrow, Krakow, Poland, until Oct 25: https://mars.uj.edu.pl/index.php/planetary-science-conference/planetary-scienceconference-2025/ As per this blog, my pick of relevant… Read More »Polish Planetary Science Conference
No less than Nature (actually Nature Astronomy, still within the Nature family) states: -, Big realities for small bodies 1407 s41550-025-02701-9 Couldn’t have put it better myself. This is an editorial introduction to the October issue (vol. 9), in which… Read More »“Big Realities for Small Bodies”
No, not the singular small body- ATLAS the network of telescopes. Javier Licandro, well-known in small-body/Solar System science, gave a talk last week on ATLAS Teide, the fifth and newest node of the ATLAS network of asteroid-search observatories. This ATLAS… Read More »ATLAS Canarias Expansion, Unpacked
Just posted by JAXA: a polite but thorough debunking of a conspiracy theory. In Japanese culture, a rumor/viral media suggested a catastrophe, to occur on July 5. Admittedly, Japanese culture is marked by catastrophes (ask any geologist… or tropical-cyclone meteorologist).… Read More »JAXA Lays Down the Landscape
In the current issue of MIT Technology Review (Sep/Oct, vol. 128 #5): Tereza Pultarova p. 12 Job titles of the future: Satellite Streak AstronomerRobin George Andrews p. 42 Inside the hunt for the most dangerous asteroid ever Yes, we have… Read More »MIT Tech Review Times Two
It’s September again, time for the 26th AMOS Conference- Sep 16-19, in Wailea, Maui. “AMOS” referred to Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance, an Air Force telescope asset and tracking program located in- you guessed it- Maui, Hawaii. From that… Read More »26th AMOS Conference, 2025