Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Rubin LSST:UK @lsstuk.bsky.social · 6d

An exciting and positive read – we're happy to see the piece give a shoutout to rising talent in #astronomy, including Astha whom we interviewed recently about her LSST:UK work too.

Michelle Collins @runningastronomer.bsky.social · 6d

Great article featuring some of our Surrey astrophysics students! Unfortunately they seem to have been attributed to the wrong supervisor, but wonderful to see them talking passionately about the work they are doing with @payeldas.bsky.social @derkal.bsky.social and Noelia Noël 🔭☄️🧪

David Blanchflower BSc @davidbflower.bsky.social · 7d

Can a satellite unlock the secrets of the universe? 🔭 🧪 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

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Rubin LSST:UK @lsstuk.bsky.social · 6d

Get to know the people working in the UK to make the @vrubinobs.bsky.social LSST happen. We caught up with @cfrohmaier.bsky.social to find out more about his work with @4most-eu.bsky.social TiDES and what he's looking forward to most about the Rubin survey 🔭 www.lsst.ac.uk/news/2025-09...

A graphic featuring a headhsot and a quote from Dr Christopher Frohmaier

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Rubin LSST:UK @lsstuk.bsky.social · 14d

Get a peek behind the scenes at @vrubinobs.bsky.social . Huge screens, live feeds, gallons of strong coffee... welcome to the Control Room at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. It's where the training, remote observing, and real-time support happens. 🔭

rubinobservatory.org/news/slac-co...

Remote Eyes on the Sky: Inside SLAC’s Rubin Control Room | Rubin Observatory

With survey operations set to begin this fall, the Rubin control room at SLAC will serve as a key hub for training and remote observing support for NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory

rubinobservatory.org

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Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 20d

Celestial alignment captured by @peterlewis55.bsky.social this afternoon! Behold the Moon, on its journey around the Earth, moving to temporarily block out the light from planet Venus. 🔭🧪

Absolutely cracking photos Peter - thanks so much for sharing!

Peter Lewis @peterlewis55.bsky.social · 20d

A few captures as Venus and the 5% waning gibbous Moon moved until the planet disappeared behind. #astronomy #astrophotography @stormhour.com @photohour.bsky.social 2/2

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Rubin LSST:UK @lsstuk.bsky.social · 20d

We sat down with team member Astha to find out what fuels her passion for the Universe. Learn what she'd be doing if she wasn't exploring the low surface brightness frontier. Find out more in our interview: www.lsst.ac.uk/news/2025-09... 🔭

We sat down with team member Astha to learn what fuels her passion for learning about the Universe. Find our more in our interview.

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Rubin LSST:UK @lsstuk.bsky.social · 24d

Over the next decade, the @vrubinobs.bsky.social survey will collect about 500 petabytes of data, equivalent to half a million 4K-UHD Blu-ray disks. Find out more about Rubin's extraordinary data demands in this interview with @markgbeckett.bsky.social 🔭: www.space.com/technology/c...

Cosmic images from the world's largest digital camera are so big they require a 'data butler'

The Rubin Observatory's enormous datasets call for cloud computing, seven different "brokers" and, indeed, a butler of sorts.

www.space.com

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Rubin LSST:UK @lsstuk.bsky.social · Sep 5

Lasair is one of the 7 independent brokers that will ingest and process @vrubinobs.bsky.social data, and serve astronomical alerts to the broader scientific community. We asked Lasair team member Roy Williams of @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social what inspires his work 🔭 www.lsst.ac.uk/news/2025-08...

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Rubin LSST:UK @lsstuk.bsky.social · Aug 27

Have you downloaded the @vrubinobs.bsky.social Orbitviewer App yet? It gives you access to detailed information about planets, dwarf planets, near-earth objects, main belt asteroids, trans-Neptunian objects, comets, interstellar objects, and much more. Start exploring now! orbitviewer.app/en/ 🔭

Orbitviewer is designed to showcase the incredible number of Solar System objects revealed by Rubin Observatory

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Rubin LSST:UK @lsstuk.bsky.social · Aug 22

Picture credit: RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/NSF/DOE/AURA/F. Munoz Arancibia

Rubin LSST:UK @lsstuk.bsky.social · Aug 22

Aside from Ghostbusters, is the secondary mirror on @vrubinobs.bsky.social the coolest thing ever made in New York? Corning Inc, its co-makers, have been nominated for the Coolest Thing Made in New York Manufacturing Contest! 🔭 Find out more about the mirror: rubinobservatory.org/news/seconda...

On July 24, 2024, Vera C. Rubin Observatory's 3.5-meter secondary mirror was installed onto the Simonyi Survey Telescope. The installation was successfully completed after installing the mirror onto its support cell and moving the combined structure from Rubin's maintenance floor up to the dome level via the heavy-load platform lift. The secondary mirror is the first piece of glass to be installed into its final position on the telescope.

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Rubin LSST:UK @lsstuk.bsky.social · Aug 15

We think there's no such thing as a typical scientist. Our new 'In the spotlight' series goes behind the scenes to get to know some of the individuals working on the
@vrubinobs.bsky.social LSST. First up, Dr Elham Saremi of
@unisouthampton.bsky.social
www.lsst.ac.uk/news/2025-08... 🔭

In the spotlight: Elham Saremi

www.lsst.ac.uk

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NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory @vrubinobs.bsky.social · Aug 7

We're going to need some more hot beverages 🥶☕️

Cerro Pachón got its third winter storm of the season this past weekend, getting ~30cm of snow! 😱 Many thanks to our hard-working crews for getting the roads safe and clear! 🔭🧪

📷: NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory

A snowy mountain landscape with two telescopes visible under blue skies with wispy white clouds. The telescope on the right is much smaller than the one on the left.

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Chris Lintott @chrislintott.bsky.social · Aug 2

BBC News next to appreciate the curtains, talking @vrubinobs.bsky.social and Comet 3I/ATLAS

Chris Lintott @chrislintott.bsky.social · Aug 2

About to be on Sky News. Hope they like the Tucson hotel curtains!

A man in a blue stripy shirt sits in a hotel room. Curtains with cartoon western scenes are present, as well as a vaguely tasteful cactus picture

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Rubin LSST:UK @lsstuk.bsky.social · Aug 4

7 billion-year-old comet caught on camera! @vrubinobs.bsky.social is already helping reveal the secrets of the Universe. Hear from @megschwamb.bsky.social on how a serendipitous event should help us better understand Comet 3I/Atlas : www.lsst.ac.uk/news/2025-08... 🔭

Comet 3I/ATLAS caught on Rubin camera

www.lsst.ac.uk

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Georgina Rannard @georginarannard.bsky.social · Jul 30

If you couldn't study science at school, or the teaching was bad, don't worry, you could still become a leading scientist and even an Astronomer Royal.
My colleague @pallabg.bsky.social story on Prof Michele Dougherty's new appointment and her brilliant career

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

UK gets first female Astronomer Royal in 350 years

Prof Michele Dougherty is the first woman to be appointed to the influential post.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Meg Schwamb @megschwamb.bsky.social · Aug 2

After a long and exhausting but stimulating week at the Rubin Community Workshop, I got to talk about some of the first science results coming from @vrubinobs.bsky.social on BBC Radio 4 Today (24 minutes in) www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Today - 02/08/2025 - BBC Sounds

Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Chris Lintott @chrislintott.bsky.social · Jul 25

Blimey, that’s a line up! If you’re at #latitude today, come see my three brilliant guests, and a little bit of me. On tomorrow with the brilliant Steve Pretty too.

Four faces loom in front of a Moon. 07:17

The Shambles Space Hour Featuring Prof Chris Lintott, Prof Kevin Fong, Dr Jen Gupta and Dr George Dransfield

16.10 on the Apollo stage.

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Meredith Rawls @merrdiff.bsky.social · Jul 22

ICYMI, a bunch of awesome @vrubinobs.bsky.social colleagues pulled together a lightning fast, highly custom analysis of a new interstellar object with very early commissioning data

Once we're fully up and running, science is going to be off the hook

You're not ready 🔭

Michele Bannister @astrokiwi.bsky.social · Jul 21

It's paper day! The first science paper with data from @vrubinobs.bsky.social's survey camera, the mighty LSSTCam, is a VERY quick turnaround of Rubin's observations thus far of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS. ☄️
Chandler et al., submitted 🔭
A 🧵

NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory Observations of Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS (C/2025 N1)

We report on the observation and measurement of astrometry, photometry, morphology, and activity of the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS, also designated C/2025 N1 (ATLAS), with the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin ...

arxiv.org

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The Royal Society @royalsociety.org · Jul 16

Our University Research Fellowships are now open for applications. These fellowships are for outstanding early career scientists to pursue cutting-edge scientific research and build an independent research career. Find out more: #RSGrants royalsociety.org/grants/unive...

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NAM 2025 Durham @nam25-durham.bsky.social · Jul 11

DAY 5 #NAM2025durham 🛰

Its the final day of NAM! Here are the special events for today:
🖼 final chance to see participant artwork around the building
🎨 art room demo at lunchtime
🏆closing ceremony

Thank you all for joining us at #NAM2025! We hope you enjoyed!

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Royal Astronomical Society @royalastrosoc.bsky.social · Jul 10

Day 4 of #NAM2025durham is almost in the books... but wait, it's not over yet!

The scientific sessions may have finished for the day but tonight there will be a live recording of our super popular The Supermassive Podcast, listened to by 90,000 space fans around the world. 🎙️🚀🪐

⤵️

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Rubin LSST:UK @lsstuk.bsky.social · Jul 7

Lots of Rubin action at @nam25-durham.bsky.social this week, including @grahamsmithastro.bsky.social
who'll be giving an overview of the @vrubinobs.bsky.social
/LSST Science Collaborations, and what data to expect when as commissioning is completed and the survey begins. 🔭

National Astronomy Meeting Durham University 2025

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RAS Journals @rasjournals.bsky.social · Jul 7

Speaking at @nam25-durham.bsky.social NAM 2025 in Durham: Feng-Yuan Liu on "Dust-obscured star-formation history back to z ≃ 7 revealed by ALMA and JWST PRIMER". Feng-Yuan has published in #MNRAS as a co-author: academic.oup.com/mnras/articl...

JWST PRIMER: a new multifield determination of the evolving galaxy UV luminosity function at redshifts z ≃ 9 – 15

ABSTRACT. We present a new determination of the evolving galaxy ultraviolet (UV) luminosity function (LF) over the redshift range $8.5< z< 15.5$ usin

academic.oup.com

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Keith Cooper @keithpcooper.bsky.social · Jun 23

My new book, Amazing Worlds of Science Fiction and Science Fact, is out now from Reaktion Books! It's all about the exoplanets that astronomers are discovering, seen through the lens of science fiction, featuring interviews with astronomers and sf authors reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/amazing...

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Rubin LSST:UK @lsstuk.bsky.social · Jun 27

What does a butler have to do with @vrubinobs.bsky.social ? This interview with @markgbeckett.bsky.social explains how the worlds of #astronomy and #cloudcomputing collide in the Legacy Survey of Space and Time. 🔭
www.space.com/technology/c...

Cosmic images from the world's largest digital camera are so big they require a 'data butler'

The Rubin Observatory's enormous datasets call for cloud computing, seven different "brokers" and, indeed, a butler of sorts.

www.space.com

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