Graham Smith

Birmingham astronomers have front-row seat for ground-breaking movie of the cosmos - University of Birmingham The decade-long wait for UK astronomers ends as the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory reveals dazzling first images.

Birmingham’s Rubin First Look Watch Party begins in just one hour at 15:30 BST, with a taste of the science that our postdocs and students are excited about. #RubinFirstLook @lsstuk.bsky.social @vrubinobs.bsky.social www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/2025/bi...

Today's the day — it's officially T-0!

GET READY: Your full First Look at images from NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory is just hours away! We're about to reveal the preview of the greatest cosmic movie ever made 🎬 #RubinFirstLook #CaptureTheCosmos 🔭🧪

⌚️ 11am US EDT
🔗: ls.st/rubin-first-look-livestream

UK gets front-row seats for groundbreaking movie of the cosmos The decade-long wait for UK astronomers ends as the National Science Foundation-Department of Energy Vera C Rubin Observatory reveals dazzling first images.

Stunning first images from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory @vrubinobs.bsky.social have been revealed today🤩🔭

Supported by a £23m investment from STFC, the Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) will create a 10-year time-lapse of our Universe.

More: www.ukri.org/news/uk-gets...

A mall section of NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory's total view of the Virgo cluster. Visible are two spiral galaxies (lower right), three merging galaxies (upper right), several groups of distant galaxies, many stars in the Milky Way galaxy and more. Credit: NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory.

The first images from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory will be revealed today. This image of the Virgo cluster, which incudes 2 spiral galaxies and 3 merging galaxies, gives a sneak preview of what we can expect. Read how EPCC is supporting Rubin's Legacy Survey of Space and Time: edin.ac/40f1n2F

Yes, more beautiful images from the revolutionary @vrubinobs.bsky.social will be revealed at 4pm UK time today, including a live stream. #RubinFirstLook #CaptureTheCosmos @lsstuk.bsky.social

It's incredible to think how much the incoming cohorts of grad students will have to work with - tbr (time before Rubin) will feel like such a different era

Can’t wait for all the exciting science from our current / next generation of PhD students as they explore the Rubin data @lsstuk.bsky.social #RubinFirstLook

You’re not the only one, @astroroyalscot.bsky.social!! Big thumbs up for Virgo and Sinclair Smith (no relation 😂) from me too! #RubinFirstLook

Buckle up folks, this is gonna be huge.. #RubinFirstLook is just the beginning!!

The glowing band of the Milky Way emanates from Rubin Observatory's boot-shaped silhouette at lower left. The brighter, dense stars of the Milky Way are crisscrossed by clouds and lanes of dark dust. The lower left horizon has an orangey hue, while the pinpricks of stars speckle the rest of the sky.

If there's one thing you should know about NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory, it's this:

✨It's going to build the greatest time-lapse movie of the cosmos ever made✨

And tomorrow is the world's first preview of how Rubin will #CaptureTheCosmos in the coming decade! 🔭🧪

Rubin Observatory beneath a glowing night sky showing the band of the Milky Way, Venus, and a comet. The observatory is a boot-shaped structure at center, with long white service building and vertical silver dome. The Milky Way stretches horizontally overhead as a cotton-candy-like band of stars and dust. The thin, faint streak of a comet appears above the observatory. Text reads "Join us virtually and globally for the reveal of first images from Rubin! 23 June 2025. 11am US EDT" Credit: RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/DOE/NSF/AURA/H. Stockebrand

We're only TWO WEEKS out from NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory's first images!

Get ready for the first preview of how Rubin will #CaptureTheCosmos in its 10-year survey in a live streamed #RubinFirstLook event on June 23, 2025 at 11am EDT!

Stay up to date at rubinobservatory.org/news/rubin-first-look 🔭🧪

A screenshot of the relaunched LSST:UK website showing the homepage with the title How the UK is helping to capture the cosmos.

Good news if you're a fan of websites... we've relaunched ours! If you're curious about what we do and how the UK is contributing to @vrubinobs.bsky.social, take a look! www.lsst.ac.uk 🔭

Earliest galaxy ever seen offers glimpse of the nascent universe The galaxy MoM-z14 dates back to 280 million years after the big bang, and the prevalence of such early galaxies is puzzling astronomers

New earliest galaxy just dropped thanks to JWST, only 280 million years after the Big Bang!

But we still aren’t quite sure why bright galaxies are so abundant so early on. What’s going on?

Story by me in New Scientist

www.newscientist.com/article/2480...

Leicester cosmic explosion expert among exceptional scientists elected as Royal Society Fellow | News | University of Leicester

🔭🧪 Congratulations to Prof Nial Tanvir who has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society for his work studying gamma-ray bursts, the most violent explosions we've ever seen.

le.ac.uk/news/2025/ma...

Rubin Observatory and its companion 1.2-meter telescope atop Cerro Pachón. Rubin is a boot-shaped building on the left with long white service sticking toward us and angular silver dome sticking up. The vertical dome slit is open, revealing the shiny ring of the top end of the 8.4-meter telescope. On the right, the small dome of the companion telescope sits atop its own hill.

This gives the telescope ENORMOUS light-collecting power while being compact! 🔆

The primary mirror is 8.4 m in diameter – taller than the height of a two-story house. Yet, the telescope also has a compact design so it's fast enough to cover the entire visible sky in just a few nights.

🔭 🧪

A dark, starry sky is visible through the open dome of Rubin Observatory.

We're worth the hype 😎 The 8.4-meter Simonyi Survey Telescope is part of what makes NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory so unique. Why?

Its primary mirror is the first of its kind, with two differently curved optical surfaces to direct light into the car-sized LSST Camera.

🔭 🧪

Lines of code are overlaid onto a background image of a nebula vibrant in color with reds, yellow, and greens. Circles scattered throughout the image call attention to stars detected by the processing pipeline represented by the lines of code. Credit: RubinObs/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage)/H. Schweiker/WIYN

NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory is about to do something never done before: #CaptureTheCosmos with a 3200-megapixel image every 40 seconds, all night, every night, for 10 years. That's 60 petabytes in raw images alone! 🔭🧪

How do you handle that much data?💾

rubinobservatory.org/news/rubin-data-deluge

A view of the Atacama desert between Calama and San Pedro de Atacama (Chile). A highway is cutting across an aride plane with snow-covered mountains in the background.

A highway cutting through rock formations with snow-covered mountains in the background.

Two snow-covered mountains in the Atacama. Front and center is the Licancabur volcano near San Pedro de Atacama

Group picture of the SWGO collaboration on the future site of the observatory. About 50 people are standing on a large flat area at high altitude. Mountains in the background.

Astrophysics sometimes takes you to extreme, remote places— like San Pedro de Atacama for the SWGO collaboration meeting, including a visit to the future high-energy gamma-ray observatory site. At 4775 m above sea level! 🔭🧪☄️

Front cover of New Scientist magazine this week

Bio information about Jonathan O'Callaghan at the end of his story

Yours truly with the cover story on New Scientist this month 😎

Do pick up a copy! I need to eat.

Part two of the issue 'Multi-messenger gravitational lensing (Part 2)' is now live! Read the new #PhilTransA issue here: royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rsta/202...

NASA budget proposal draws strong criticism The White House’s proposal to cut NASA’s budget by nearly 25% and cancel several major programs has drawn criticism from industry and members of Congress, while raising concerns among international…

What is the timeline on NASA's "skinny budget"? When could it be approved/watered down by Congress?

And say for, like Mars Sample Return, if the budget was approved when could that mission be officially cancelled?

spacenews.com/nasa-budget-...

📞 Your voice matters! Today, call your senators and representatives to tell them why funding science and space is critical for America's future. It only takes a few minutes — and it can have a huge impact. #WeekOfAction ow.ly/m0oO50VN0Nm

The preface to Part 1 of Multi-messenger gravitational lensing gives a brief overview for busy people royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... @royalsocietypublishing.org

I'm excited about the amazing #multi-messenger #gravitational-lensing discoveries that we can make by working together across communities in the coming years. @ligo.org, @vrubinobs.bsky.social, @einsteintelescope.bsky.social, @lsstuk.bsky.social, @unibirmingham.bsky.social, and more..

Multi-messenger gravitational lensing | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences We introduce the rapidly emerging field of multi-messenger gravitational lensing—the discovery and science of gravitationally lensed phenomena in the distant universe through the combination of multip...

I feel privileged to have collaborated with a large and talented team (including @drgavinplamb.bsky.social, @anachoponte.bsky.social, @laurauronen.bsky.social, @dkeitel.bsky.social) to write this article, published today by @royalsocietypublishing.org: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Promotional graphic for Rubin Observatory's 3200-megapixel group photo. Text reads "Let's make a 3200 megapixel group photo!"

We’re creating a massive, 3200-megapixel group photo…and it won’t be complete without YOU!

NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory’s LSST Camera — the largest camera in the world — began on-sky engineering tests this month. So let’s celebrate! 🔭🧪

Join by May 14: rubinobservatory.org/explore/acti...

India to begin construction of gravitational wave project A remote 174-acre tract of land in central India is about to become one of the most sensitive listening posts in the universe

Having this detector on Indian soil, on the other side of the world from the American observatories, will dramatically improve our ability to localize the sources of gravitational waves

www.nature.com/articles/d44...

Text reads 'Caroline Herschel Prize Lectureship 2025' and includes the deadline of 30 April to apply by on a nebula background with comets and an image of Caroline Herschel.

🚨 Last chance! 🚨

The deadline to get applications in for the Caroline Herschel Prize Lectureship is TOMORROW (Wednesday 30 April).

If you're a woman astronomer keen to apply, find out what you need to do at: herschelsociety.org.uk/caroline-her...

Capitals, capabilities, and the conversion of commodities: the case of neurodivergent graduates’ transitions to the labour market - Higher Education The employment opportunities and outcomes of disabled graduates has gained increased international attention among researchers, policymakers and HE practitioners. This article explores the early emplo...

📢 Very happy to share new #OA paper w Michael Tomlinson that unpacks valued and diverse ways ND grads engage in employment following #uni.
bit.ly/42YxQfm
Data show importance of grad capitals and choice for meaningful work. But also how context can either enable or constrain outcomes. Pls share! 📑

NEW on Wonkhe: Can you assess students without exams or set questions? As Stephen Brown explains, we've been doing it for years bit.ly/3GpIa7F