Author | Lightnews

Reposted by Simons Observatory

Flatiron Institute @flatironinstitute.org · Sep 16

The @simonsobservatory.org was recently highlighted on BBC Four's The Sky at Night program: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002j9vz #science #astronomy #cosmology

BBC Four - The Sky at Night, The Expanding Universe

The team explores the expansion of the universe and its role in how the cosmos works.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Reposted by Simons Observatory

Simons Foundation @simonsfoundation.org · Sep 9

Excited to announce the latest recipients of our Targeted Grants in Mathematics and Physical Sciences (MPS) and Targeted Grants to Institutions: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/2025/08/27/2025-targeted-grants-to-institutes-and-targeted-grants-in-mps-announced/ #science #math

2025 Targeted Grants to Institutes and Targeted Grants in MPS Announced

The Simons Foundation announced the latest recipients of the Targeted Grants in MPS and Targeted Grants to Institutions.

www.simonsfoundation.org

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Simons Observatory @simonsobservatory.org · Sep 8

Tonight! 🧪📺

Simons Observatory @simonsobservatory.org · Sep 5

UK people! If you tune in to BBC Four at 22:00 BST this Monday, you will see us on The Sky at Night! www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m... (plus other features on @vrubinobs.bsky.social and DESI) #scicomm

BBC Four - The Sky at Night, The Expanding Universe

The team explores the expansion of the universe and its role in how the cosmos works.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Simons Observatory @simonsobservatory.org · Sep 5

UK people! If you tune in to BBC Four at 22:00 BST this Monday, you will see us on The Sky at Night! www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m... (plus other features on @vrubinobs.bsky.social and DESI) #scicomm

BBC Four - The Sky at Night, The Expanding Universe

The team explores the expansion of the universe and its role in how the cosmos works.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Simons Observatory @simonsobservatory.org · Jul 24

We're having our collaboration meeting this week! Many of our members went to the University of Manchester, many more are online. Kudos to the local team for an adorable logo (with a pun in it of course) 🐝-modes are the sweetest honey! #AstroSci

A group of about a hundred people arrayed outdoors on a lawn in front of a multi-story brick building detailed with oxidized copper panels. The sky is grey but they are smiling

A roundel with written "Simons Observatory" on top and "Face-2-face Manchester 2025" at the bottom. The roundel shows the Manchester skyline in grey on a black background. A stylized telescope at the bottom left shines a light at a white and orange pixel-art bee.

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Reposted by Simons Observatory

Bluefors @bluefors.com · Jul 7

At @simonsobservatory.org, Bluefors cooling tech powers ultra-sensitive telescopes mapping the #CosmicMicrowaveBackground —the faint afterglow of the Big Bang.

Take a dive into this ambitious #Cosmology project:
bluefors.com/stories/big-...

#Astrophysics #Astronomy #PhysicsSky #CoolForProgress

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Simons Observatory @simonsobservatory.org · Jul 5

Hey, that's us! 🔭☄️

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · Jul 5

Starts With a Bang podcast #119 – The CMB

What's the big deal with the CMB?

Why do we keep trying to do more science with it even after the Planck mission?

What can we still learn from it?

Patricio Gallardo and I answer these and many more questions!
bigthink.com/starts-with-...
#space #astro

Starts With a Bang podcast #119 - The CMB

The relic signal that first proved the Big Bang has been known and analyzed for 60 years. Join us at the frontiers of modern cosmology!

bigthink.com

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Simons Observatory @simonsobservatory.org · Jun 25

Cool results from our cousins at the South Pole Telescope! 🔭 With our Large Aperture Telescope, we hope to reach a similarly exquisite sensitivity as they do on their green patch over a large sky area (that I crudely outlined in blue).

An oval projection of the full night sky, with the galaxy forming a wispy horseshoe figure through it. several trapezoids of color cover different parts of it. The original caption reads:
"FIG. 3. Footprints of the SPT-3G surveys—Main (green filled area), Summer (orange filled area), and Wide (red filled area)—shown alongside the ACT DR6 survey mask (blue solid line). We show Galactic dust as measured by Planck in the background [45] and indicate the most contaminated region with the Planck GAL080 mask as shown in gray shading with a white border. This work is based on observations of the SPT-3G Main field. The combination of the SPT-3G Main, SPT-3G
Summer, and SPT-3G Wide fields will constitute the Ext-10k field, which will probe 25% of the sky with low noise and high resolution."

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Reposted by Simons Observatory

Simons Foundation @simonsfoundation.org · May 22

Eternal Sky, a documentary about our co-founder Jim Simons and the @simonsobservatory.org, is now available for streaming: www.simonsfoundation.org/2025/05/13/e... #science #astronomy #cosmology

Eternal Sky Film About Jim Simons and the Simons Observatory Now Streaming

Eternal Sky, a documentary about the lead-up to the construction of the Simons Observatory in Chile’s Atacama Desert, is now available for streaming.

www.simonsfoundation.org

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Reposted by Simons Observatory

Atacama Cosmology Telescope y Simons Observatory en Español @act-simonsobs-es.bsky.social · May 13

Hoy se cumplen 60 años de la publicación del descubrimiento del Fondo Cósmico de Microondas por Arno Penzias y Robert Wilson! 🥳

Compartimos la columna de nuestro investigador @csifon.bsky.social resumiendo la importancia de este descubrimiento

Cristóbal Sifón @csifon.bsky.social · May 11

Mi columna en Emol sobre el cumpleaños 60 del Fondo Cósmico de Microondas y el rol central que ha tenido y seguirá teniendo Chile en la exploración del origen y la evolución del Universo #astronomia

comentarista.emol.com/2578227/3332...

Columna de Astronomía | 60 años del Fondo Cósmico de Microondas

En 6 días más se cumplen 60 años de la publicación de uno de los descubrim

comentarista.emol.com

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Simons Observatory @simonsobservatory.org · May 8

"LAT llama a casa"

Atacama Cosmology Telescope y Simons Observatory en Español @act-simonsobs-es.bsky.social · May 6

Parece que el Telescopio de Gran Apertura despega en cualquier minuto 🚀🤔

Simons Observatory @simonsobservatory.org · May 6

OK, who was throwing a rave inside the Large Aperture Telescope 🔭?

(Image credit: Prof. Suzanne Staggs, Princeton)

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Simons Observatory @simonsobservatory.org · May 6

OK, who was throwing a rave inside the Large Aperture Telescope 🔭?

(Image credit: Prof. Suzanne Staggs, Princeton)

A night photo of a large building-sized telescope. The building is in two parts: a big u-shaped structure is mounted on a pivot, and itself ensnares a smaller brick-shaped box that can swivel with a hole in it. Some rocks in the background are visible in yellow, illuminated by an unseen source. Red safety lights at the bottom of the U element and ice blue light from within the telescope's opening complete the scene

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Simons Observatory @simonsobservatory.org · Apr 28

We had snow last week at our site! Our telescopes 🔭 like being cold, our teams not so much. Here you are looking inside the sun-shield of one of the SO SATs, the actual lenses and the focal plane sit beneath that shiny cover, cooled to cryogenic temperatures.
Image credit: Dr Elle Shaw, UT Austin

A front view of one of the SO Small aperture telescopes from up close. The top half of the image is filled by a conical structure we are looking into: its inside is covered with a white, wallpaper looking structure. There is snow piled up on the bottom lip of the cone. At the end of the cone is an aluminium foil cover.
Beneath and behind the cone you can see a white metal platform that holds the rest of the telescope, including its mount. Various surfaces are covered in snow, black cables meander around the scene.
In the background, a deep blue sky and a shiny screen that provides additional sun and terrain shielding.

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Simons Observatory @simonsobservatory.org · Apr 18

"A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct."
-Frank Herbert, Dune

Our Rubin colleagues are starting an exciting commissioning period in Chile, like us with our LAT!

NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory @vrubinobs.bsky.social · Apr 17

Eye to the sky…on-sky engineering tests have begun at NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory using the world’s largest digital camera! 🔭🧪

After installing and testing the LSST Camera, we turned the telescope to the sky—a moment 20 years in the making!

With that, Rubin #CommissioningNotes are back ✍️

🧵

Around two dozen people sit and stand at a long desk with computer monitors out of view. Several people are smiling or have their mouths open in amazement. One person in the back has their arms raised in celebration.

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Simons Observatory @simonsobservatory.org · Apr 10

This week, we are trying to assess performance of our Large Aperture Telescope by looking at the planet Mars. For our telescope, it appears as a point, so we can understand our optical response and pointing by observing it.
Image credit: Mark Devlin. ☄️🔭

The Simons Observatory LAT with its aperture open, looking at the sky at night. Red safety lights illuminate the bottom of the telescope structure, while a few stars shine in the background.

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Reposted by Simons Observatory

Jenna Moore, Ph. D. 🔭✨ @drjmo.bsky.social · Apr 10

@evevavagiakis.bsky.social introduces Large™️ @simonsobservatory.org telescope to a standing room only crowd at @astronomyontap.bsky.social Durham!

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Simons Observatory @simonsobservatory.org · Mar 30

Fun fact: Three out of the eight schools in the Elite Eight of the Women's March Madness are members of the Simons Observatory: Duke, USC, and UT Austin. 🏀 If you want your team to get good, consider convincing your institution to join us! (Of course, there is a relevant xkcd: xkcd.com/1365/)

Inflation

xkcd.com

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Reposted by Simons Observatory

Simons Foundation @simonsfoundation.org · Mar 18

The @simonsobservatory.org recently completed the installation of its Large Aperture Telescope, joining its three Small Aperture Telescopes. These telescopes will collect the most precise measurements yet of the universe’s oldest light. www.simonsfoundation.org/2025/03/17/s... #science #astronomy

Simons Observatory Large Aperture Telescope Achieves First Light Milestone

Simons Observatory Large Aperture Telescope Achieves First Light Milestone on Simons Foundation

www.simonsfoundation.org

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Simons Observatory @simonsobservatory.org · Mar 17

If you're curious about the LAT's abilities, here's a thread from a few weeks ago:

Simons Observatory @simonsobservatory.org · Feb 21

As we are putting the finishing touches on our Large Aperture Telescope 🔭, now might be a good time to explain what science goals it serves. The problem is that there are many to choose from! (Image credit: Mark Devlin) 1/8

A large aluminium mirror made of square panels is being attached to a metallic truss structure inside a housing by several people. The people are less than a third the size of the mirror. The top of the mirror is attached to a wooden beam that is itself attached to some ropes that disappear towards what we assume to be a crane beyond the top of the image.

Simons Observatory @simonsobservatory.org · Mar 17

We have first light on our Large Aperture Telescope! www.simonsfoundation.org/2025/03/17/s...
After installing our mirrors over the last few weeks, we have started looking at the sky. We are still tuning the telescope, but we can already make maps of objects in the sky, like Mars. ☄️🔭🧪

A green dot (Mars) surrounded by a white ring on a purple background. A faint white x pattern is visible

One of the mirrors being lowered by crane inside the white box that constitutes the LAT housing. Behind it is the barren landscape of the Atacama desert

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Reposted by Simons Observatory

Atacama Cosmology Telescope y Simons Observatory en Español @act-simonsobs-es.bsky.social · Mar 13

¡La nueva página del Observatorio Simons ya está disponible! Por ahora solo en inglés, pronto viene la versión en castellano. ¿Qué les parece? ¡Déjennos sus comentarios!

simonsobservatory.org/institutions/

Institutions |

simonsobservatory.org

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Simons Observatory @simonsobservatory.org · Mar 13

We have a brand new website! simonsobservatory.org Go check it out for information on what we do, recent publications, and cool images. 🧪🔭

A drone view of the Atacama desert on a clear day with the SO site in the foreground.

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Simons Observatory @simonsobservatory.org · Mar 12

Good luck out there SPHEREx! May your non-gaussianity constraints have low uncertainty.

Jenna Moore, Ph. D. 🔭✨ @drjmo.bsky.social · Mar 12

bye, SPHEREx! do great science! 🥹

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Reposted by Simons Observatory

Atacama Cosmology Telescope y Simons Observatory en Español @act-simonsobs-es.bsky.social · Mar 4

Hoy publicamos dos artículos en el repositorio #arXiv. En el primero de ellos (arxiv.org/abs/2503.00636) discutimos los principales objetivos científicos de nuestro LAT (recuerden: Large Aperture Telescope, Telescopio de Gran Apertura), que observará la mitad del cielo

Mapa del cielo mostrando el área que observará el Observatorio Simons en comparación a DES, DESI, Euclid y Rubin.

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Reposted by Simons Observatory

Jenna Moore, Ph. D. 🔭✨ @drjmo.bsky.social · Mar 3

two weeks, two readout harnesses for advanced @simonsobs.bsky.social!

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