Topic: Pamela Gay
Rubin Observatory Brings Much Needed Joy

Rubin Observatory Brings Much Needed Joy

Ok, so we held off running this last little section while I waited to see if Vera Rubin observatory would put out a First Light press release. Rubin Observatory did not put out a first light press release. They put out a Facebook post saying “on-sky engineering tests have begun at NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory using the world’s largest digital camera!” To me, this sounds like they had first light. In fact, they went on to say, “After installing and testing the LSST Camera, we turned the telescope to the sky—a moment 20 years in the making! Thanks to the years of diligent work from our incredible...

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Leading Science Via Meritocracy and Consensus

Leading Science Via Meritocracy and Consensus

An American flag hung upside down from a cliff by National Parks employees, signifying distress. Credit: Tracy Barbutes / San Francisco Chronical One of the imperfectly realized goals of science is to reward people fairly for their excellence and defining our future...

It’s Time to Give Up on Supersymmetry

It’s Time to Give Up on Supersymmetry

Since I was old enough to read about particle physics, I’ve been reading about how one possible set of solutions to explain why we have the particles we have in our universe would require the existence of a massive zoo of particles that that bring the population of...

Galaxies Seen Through Gas

Galaxies Seen Through Gas

One of the more surreal aspects of JWST images is that infrared light can pass through a lot of dust and gas, allowing us to see galaxies that were previously hidden. New images of Herbig-Haro 49/50 resemble a weirdly abstract Christmas tree; a ring galaxy ornaments...

Dark Energy Search Gets Dynamic

Dark Energy Search Gets Dynamic

At the beginning of our last episode, I mentioned that we’d just learned that new work by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, or DESI, had provided hints that our universe has a changing density of dark energy, but I needed time to look over the research. Well,...

Ancient Crater Found Hiding in Australia

Ancient Crater Found Hiding in Australia

I want to bring you a story that looks to rewrite a bit of our world's history. Researchers studying the geology of an Australian feature called the North Pole Dome, despite being located in Western Australia, found evidence that the feature is associated with a 3.5...

Venus Volcanism is Erupting in the Literature

Venus Volcanism is Erupting in the Literature

Another big topic of discussion at LPSC seemed to be Venus. I say "seemed" because I’m sure the actual big topic of discussion was proposed budget cuts, which could be as much as 50%, but there was no definitive information on budget cuts, so that is more a big topic...