Simons Observatory
@simonsobservatory.org
Figuring out some of the mysteries of the Universe from Chile at simonsobservatory.org
Pinned
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. 🧪🔭
Reposted by Simons Observatory
On the third day of CMBmas, my telescope gave to me:
Three working SATs 🔭
Two optical designs
and a low PWV
Last winter, we fixed a cracked lens in one of our Small Aperture Telescopes. We put it back on its' platform and it's now scanning the sky again.
(Timelapse made by Josh Borrow, UPenn)
Three working SATs 🔭
Two optical designs
and a low PWV
Last winter, we fixed a cracked lens in one of our Small Aperture Telescopes. We put it back on its' platform and it's now scanning the sky again.
(Timelapse made by Josh Borrow, UPenn)
December 17, 2025 at 1:22 AM
On the third day of CMBmas, my telescope gave to me:
Three working SATs 🔭
Two optical designs
and a low PWV
Last winter, we fixed a cracked lens in one of our Small Aperture Telescopes. We put it back on its' platform and it's now scanning the sky again.
(Timelapse made by Josh Borrow, UPenn)
Three working SATs 🔭
Two optical designs
and a low PWV
Last winter, we fixed a cracked lens in one of our Small Aperture Telescopes. We put it back on its' platform and it's now scanning the sky again.
(Timelapse made by Josh Borrow, UPenn)
On the first day of CMBmas, the observatory
Had a low PWV
Telescopes like us are inconvenienced by water in the atmosphere emitting/blocking microwaves (same reason why a microwave heats food well). Luckily, the #Atacama desert has one of the lowest Precipitable Water Vapour amounts Earth.
Had a low PWV
Telescopes like us are inconvenienced by water in the atmosphere emitting/blocking microwaves (same reason why a microwave heats food well). Luckily, the #Atacama desert has one of the lowest Precipitable Water Vapour amounts Earth.
December 15, 2025 at 10:58 PM
On the first day of CMBmas, the observatory
Had a low PWV
Telescopes like us are inconvenienced by water in the atmosphere emitting/blocking microwaves (same reason why a microwave heats food well). Luckily, the #Atacama desert has one of the lowest Precipitable Water Vapour amounts Earth.
Had a low PWV
Telescopes like us are inconvenienced by water in the atmosphere emitting/blocking microwaves (same reason why a microwave heats food well). Luckily, the #Atacama desert has one of the lowest Precipitable Water Vapour amounts Earth.
Reposted by Simons Observatory
Thrilled to join the Simons Observatory with Duke University as a member institution! @simonsobservatory.org
today.duke.edu/2025/10/capt...
today.duke.edu/2025/10/capt...
Capturing the Big Bang’s Afterglow | Duke Today
today.duke.edu
November 3, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Thrilled to join the Simons Observatory with Duke University as a member institution! @simonsobservatory.org
today.duke.edu/2025/10/capt...
today.duke.edu/2025/10/capt...
Reposted by Simons Observatory
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
September 16, 2025 at 6:54 PM
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
Reposted by Simons Observatory
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
September 9, 2025 at 2:07 PM
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
Tonight! 🧪📺
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
September 8, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Tonight! 🧪📺
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
September 5, 2025 at 4:18 PM
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
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
July 24, 2025 at 11:49 AM
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
Reposted by Simons Observatory
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
Take a dive into this ambitious #Cosmology project:
bluefors.com/stories/big-...
#Astrophysics #Astronomy #PhysicsSky #CoolForProgress
July 7, 2025 at 10:32 AM
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
Take a dive into this ambitious #Cosmology project:
bluefors.com/stories/big-...
#Astrophysics #Astronomy #PhysicsSky #CoolForProgress
Hey, that's us! 🔭☄️
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
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
July 5, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Hey, that's us! 🔭☄️
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."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:o6nhidmwtyfznchshyb7jugb/bafkreibyx2furgyist3ubq2dzbj4lbvpkukqfq7kgufmu2xxu5nnfgzyju@jpeg)
June 25, 2025 at 11:49 PM
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).
Reposted by Simons Observatory
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
May 22, 2025 at 6:35 PM
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
Reposted by Simons Observatory
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
Compartimos la columna de nuestro investigador @csifon.bsky.social resumiendo la importancia de este descubrimiento
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...
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
May 13, 2025 at 1:36 PM
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
Compartimos la columna de nuestro investigador @csifon.bsky.social resumiendo la importancia de este descubrimiento
"LAT llama a casa"
Parece que el Telescopio de Gran Apertura despega en cualquier minuto 🚀🤔
OK, who was throwing a rave inside the Large Aperture Telescope 🔭?
(Image credit: Prof. Suzanne Staggs, Princeton)
(Image credit: Prof. Suzanne Staggs, Princeton)
May 8, 2025 at 6:36 PM
"LAT llama a casa"
OK, who was throwing a rave inside the Large Aperture Telescope 🔭?
(Image credit: Prof. Suzanne Staggs, Princeton)
(Image credit: Prof. Suzanne Staggs, Princeton)
May 6, 2025 at 12:32 AM
OK, who was throwing a rave inside the Large Aperture Telescope 🔭?
(Image credit: Prof. Suzanne Staggs, Princeton)
(Image credit: Prof. Suzanne Staggs, Princeton)
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
Image credit: Dr Elle Shaw, UT Austin
April 28, 2025 at 8:15 PM
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
Image credit: Dr Elle Shaw, UT Austin
"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!
-Frank Herbert, Dune
Our Rubin colleagues are starting an exciting commissioning period in Chile, like us with our LAT!
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 ✍️
🧵
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 ✍️
🧵
April 18, 2025 at 9:45 PM
"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!
-Frank Herbert, Dune
Our Rubin colleagues are starting an exciting commissioning period in Chile, like us with our LAT!
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. ☄️🔭
Image credit: Mark Devlin. ☄️🔭
April 10, 2025 at 6:37 PM
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. ☄️🔭
Image credit: Mark Devlin. ☄️🔭
Reposted by Simons Observatory
@evevavagiakis.bsky.social introduces Large™️ @simonsobservatory.org telescope to a standing room only crowd at @astronomyontap.bsky.social Durham!
April 10, 2025 at 12:28 AM
@evevavagiakis.bsky.social introduces Large™️ @simonsobservatory.org telescope to a standing room only crowd at @astronomyontap.bsky.social Durham!
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
March 30, 2025 at 6:02 AM
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/)
Reposted by Simons Observatory
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
March 18, 2025 at 2:22 PM
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
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. ☄️🔭🧪
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. ☄️🔭🧪
March 17, 2025 at 3:45 PM
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. ☄️🔭🧪
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. ☄️🔭🧪
Reposted by Simons Observatory
¡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/
simonsobservatory.org/institutions/
Institutions |
simonsobservatory.org
March 13, 2025 at 10:42 PM
¡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/
simonsobservatory.org/institutions/
We have a brand new website! simonsobservatory.org Go check it out for information on what we do, recent publications, and cool images. 🧪🔭
March 13, 2025 at 10:42 PM
We have a brand new website! simonsobservatory.org Go check it out for information on what we do, recent publications, and cool images. 🧪🔭
Good luck out there SPHEREx! May your non-gaussianity constraints have low uncertainty.
March 12, 2025 at 5:45 AM
Good luck out there SPHEREx! May your non-gaussianity constraints have low uncertainty.