Announcements 2019

12 February 2019: Project & Science News The LSST Project is distributed and complex, and understanding the relationships between its participating organizations and affiliates can be challenging. A new diagram, “The LSST Ecosystem,” represents these relationships visually. The diagram can be accessed in the LSST Gallery; we encourage you to use it in presentations and documents when appropriate. The Filter Exchange team in France is making significant progress on the construction of the manual loader and the auto-changer, two important components of the filter exchange system installed on the LSST Camera. This system will accommodate LSST’s six filters, each of which is 30 inches (76 cm) in diameter and weighs about 88 pounds (40 kg). IN2P3 is on track to complete the fabrication of the filter exchange system by the end of the second quarter of 2019. Recent photos of the filter exchange system are available in the LSST Gallery. Coating of the …

11 February 2019: New Horizon’s departing view of Ultima Thule, caught as the spacecraft raced away at 31,000 mph, shows that the Kuiper Belt Object’s shape is actually quite odd. Rather than the “snowman” shape initially reported, it more closely resembles a giant pancake (Ultima) stuck to a dented walnut (Thule). The revelation came from “tracing out" the unlit side of Ultima Thule as it blocked the view to background stars (see animation). NOAO Astronomer Tod Lauer played a critical role in the investigation.

6 February 2019: Astronomers using adaptive optics on the 8-meter Gemini North telescope have resolved, for the first time in near-infrared light, a giant elliptical galaxy with a young radio jet down to unprecedented scales. The observations also show how the jets, emanating from a black hole at the center of this galaxy, are heating the interstellar medium, which may have a significant impact on the evolution of the host galaxy. Using adaptive optics (AO) and near-infrared imaging on the 8-meter Gemini North telescope in Hawai‘i, a team of astronomers lead by PhD student Henry Zovaro (The Australian National University) report the discovery of shocked molecular and ionized gas resulting from a jet-driven feedback coming from the center of a compact radio galaxy. The discovery offers important information on how such activity can influence the evolution of its host galaxy. The galaxy, which goes by the name MCG 5-4-18, is a nearby giant …

31 January 2019: Active asteroids blur the distinction between asteroids and comets. Like other asteroids, they orbit the Sun in a belt between Mars and Jupiter. But they can also “shape shift," unfurling spectacular comet-like tails, then packing them away again. Observations of P/2017 S5 made with the WIYN telescope identify it as a water-bearing active asteroid and a step toward understanding the origin of water on Earth. The study was carried out by a team led by D. Jewitt (UCLA) that includes NOAO astronomers Jayadev Rajagopal, Susan Ridgway, and Wilson Liu.

29 January 2019: Project & Science News After a 35-day partial shutdown, normal U.S. government operations have resumed until at least mid-February. LSST senior management staff will continue to work with AURA and the NSF to keep the Project moving forward and to minimize the effects of future disruptions. A magnitude 6.7 earthquake occurred in Chile on January 19, affecting the La Serena region. Electricity and communications were interrupted but quickly restored, and inspections by LSST staff revealed no significant damage. Thanks to LSST and Mountain Operations staff in Chile for ensuring the safety of people and equipment during and after the event. Following the 233rd AAS meeting in Seattle, the Project Science Team had a face-to-face meeting on January 10-11. After presentations by Amanda Bauer about updated EPO construction plans and by Lynne Jones about 46 submitted cadence white papers, the PST discussed software coordination across the Project, Project funding contingency levels, …

25 January 2019: The National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), along with the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), are pleased to announce a transition plan for NOAO leadership through the rest of this year, following the departure of David Silva January 25. Lori Allen, Associate Director for Kitt Peak National Observatory, will serve as Acting NOAO Director. She will have the assistance of Adam Bolton (new Acting Deputy Director of NOAO and Associate Director for NOAO’s Community Science Data Center, CSDC) and Steve Heathcote (Associate Director of NOAO South and Director of Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory, CTIO). Allen joined NOAO in 2009 from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and has served as Associate Director of Kitt Peak since 2014. In her new position, she will be responsible for top level management of NOAO and execution of the FY19 planned program as well as continuing in her role in the senior management …

15 January 2019: Project & Science News Reminder: The LSST Project Office in Tucson will be closed on Monday, January 21st, in observance of Martin Luther King Jr./Civil Rights Day. LSST had a significant presence at the 233rd Meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS). This year’s winter meeting took place in Seattle, WA, on January 6-10, with more than 3000 registrants. During the meeting, LSST team members staffed an exhibit booth and a job fair booth, facilitated two sessions of a tutorial on the LSST Science Pipelines, and hosted a town hall at which Charles Simonyi was a distinguished guest. More information is available in this recent news post, and Town Hall slides can be found here. The LSST Secondary Mirror (M2), which arrived at Cerro Pachón in December, has been inspected, declared free of damage from shipping, and moved into the LSST summit facility. It is currently being stored on the …

5 January 2019: The first detailed images of the most distant object ever explored reveal the Kuiper Belt object Ultima Thule to be a “contact binary” consisting of two connected spheres: “Ultima” the larger sphere and “Thule” the smaller. In making the discovery, New Horizons set a new bar for spacecraft navigation — never before has a spacecraft tracked down such a small body at such high speed so far away. NOAO Astronomer Tod Lauer played a critical role in the achievement.

2 January 2019: In preparation for its new mission as the home of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), the Kitt Peak Mayall telescope recently received its new top end, a 10 ton steel-framed structure that includes the new corrector barrel—a stacked array of large delicate lenses that creates a wide field-of-view—and will eventually house the 5000 robot fiber-positioners that will be used to capture the light from millions of galaxies and quasars. DESI will create the largest 3-D map of the cosmos to date and probe the role of dark energy in the expansion history of the Universe.