KIPAC

We welcomed over 50 students from high schools in East San José to campus for physics demonstration activities, a catered lunch, and a tour of campus, all led by our volunteers! This field trip was part of our ongoing partnership with the ESUHSD!

On Tuesday, we went to Independence High School in East San José as part of our ongoing partnership with the East Side Union High School District. We had a great time talking to many students and families about our outreach programs!

Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) Collaboration: DESI Collaboration Wins 2026 Berkeley Prize www.desi.lbl.gov/2025/08/25/d...

Variety is the Spice of Science: Kickstarting New Scientific… Leveraging complementary scientific skillsets across the Kavli Institutes

Excited to announce that we were just awarded 3 KICK grants from the @kavlifoundation.org to work on new materials to detect dark matter, test pulsar radiation effects om detectors in space, and constrain inflation in the early universe! www.kavlifoundation.org/news/variety...

☄️ Say hello to Comet 3I/ATLAS as seen by NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory! Comet 3I/ATLAS is just the third interstellar object ever spotted in our Solar System. Rubin Observatory didn’t discover it, but… Interstellar Object Comet 3I/ATLAS as seen by NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory!

☄️ Say hello to Comet 3I/ATLAS, just the third interstellar object ever seen in our Solar System!

NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory didn’t discover the comet, but even during testing, it caught a glimpse. Imagine what we'll find once full science operations begin later this year! 🔭🧪

We were seeing red (in a good way) last week during our stargazing event at the Stanford Student Observatory:

How Princess Leia Inspired Me to Become an Astrophysicist On the enduring legacies of Carrie Fisher and Vera Rubin.

Vera Rubin, the namesake of @VRubinObs.bsky.social was a trailblazer and prolific astronomer born on July 23rd, 1928. If you're interested in learning how she inspired @risawechsler.bsky.social, check out her 2017 article for @teenvogue.com: www.teenvogue.com/story/how-pr...

Aerial view of a boot-shaped observatory with long white service building and an open dome revealing its telescope atop a rocky mountain during golden hour with distant hills. Credit: RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/NSF/DOE/AURA/T. Matsopoulos

It's like the holidays in July...our first week-long workshop after the first NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory image reveal! 🎁

We're one week out from the Rubin Community Workshop in Tucson, and we can't wait for five days of rich discussions & observatory updates! #Rubin2025 🔭🧪

KIPAC scientists are excited to get our hands on data from @VRubinObs.bsky.social and we had an event last week to help us analyze it! Our Rubin Data Exploration Day event had speakers and workshops for scientists of all career stages. Check out some photos from the event:

YouTube video by PBS Space Time Why Is All DNA Right Handed?

@pbs.org SpaceTime just featured Noémie Globus and Roger Blandford's paper, "The Chiral Puzzle of Life" which suggests that Cosmic Rays could contribute to homochirality of RNA molecules: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wZP...

If you're interested in learning more about cosmic neutrino detectors, galactic magnetic fields, or the evolution of the cosmos, come check out our latest research highlight about the role particles play in the universe! kipac.stanford.edu/highlights/bey…

Peter Michelson was just recognized by the European Space Agency for his work on @NASAFermi, an instrument that has completely transformed high-energy astrophysics! news.stanford.edu/stories/2025/0…

We had a great time talking to members of the public @calacademy.bsky.social this past weekend about how @VRubinObs.bsky.social is going to transform cosmology over the next decade! Sign up for our mailing list to hear about future events: bit.ly/KIPAC_outreach

Over 600 people showed up at Hewlett to hear from KIPAC scientists about @vrubinobs.bsky.social at our special public lecture event on Tuesday! The full event is now on YouTube in case you missed it: www.youtube.com/live/9R9lIkQ...

Vera C. Rubin Observatory - The First Look Join us to celebrate and learn about the first images from the Rubin Observatory talks at Science Today.

KIPAC is teaming up with California Academy of Sciences this Saturday to celebrate the First Look from @VRubinObs.bsky.social! 🤩 Join our scientists for short talks on how Rubin is uniquely poised to transform multiple sub-fields of astronomy. 🔭✨

More info: www.calacademy.org/events/progr...

Camera built in the Bay Area captures photos of space like never before The Rubin Observatory sits on the summit of Cerro Pachón in Chile, with the digital camera scanning the sky to create an ultra-wide, ultra-high definition timelapse of our universe

@vrubinobs.bsky.social's first images using the world’s largest digital camera was featured on @kpixtv.bsky.social.

@risawechsler.bsky.social, Director of @kipac.bsky.social said, "It makes me very, very excited about the future of astrophysics."

bit.ly/4loJ3wi

@stanforduniversity.bsky.social

Stunned by the first images released from the @Vrubinobs.bsky.social? Join us on July 1 for a special event where key project leads and scientists share why this observatory is so special and how it will help us study the changing sky, and our own Milky Way. RSVP: bit.ly/rubin-july1

@vrubinobs.bsky.social was also featured in the @nytimes.com headline podcast (scroll to 8 minutes in to hear about @vrubinobs.bsky.social ):
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

Scientists react to first images released by world’s largest digital camera More than 20 years ago, Stanford and SLAC launched the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, setting in motion a chain of events that helped bring the Legacy Survey of Space and Tim...

@Stanford.edu put together a great video summarizing our watch party for First Look, and the profound impact @vrubinobs.bsky.social will have on cosmology research over the coming decade: news.stanford.edu/stories/2025...

A New Camera, Built in the Bay Area, Brings the Mysteries of the Universe Into Focus | KQED Over the next decade, the Vera C. Rubin observatory, equipped with a giant camera built at SLAC in Menlo Park, will find billions of new stars, galaxies and asteroids, and shed light on dark matter an...

Travis Lange and Phil Marshall sat down yesterday with KQED to talk about their work at SLAC to develop the camera for the @vrubinobs.bsky.social and its implications for cosmology research over the next decade: www.kqed.org/science/1997...

The bold bet that built a telescope Two decades ago, Stanford and SLAC took a gamble on an unproven telescope design that had no funding, no home, and no official backing. Now, with first images in hand and full operations on the horizo...

Two decades ago, Stanford and SLAC took a gamble on an unproven telescope design that had no funding, no home, and no official backing. Now, with first images in hand and full operations on the horizon, that bet is on the verge of paying off.

These are first deep-space images from the Vera Rubin Observatory The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is expected to discover 20 billion new galaxies over the next decade.

Check out this article from National Geographic to hear from @caganze.bsky.social and other scientists who worked hard to make the @vrubinobs.bsky.social and its massive camera a reality: www.nationalgeographic.com/science/arti...

💫 Breaking: The Vera C. Rubin Observatory just released its first images using the powerful LSST camera and they are spectacular!

@kipac.bsky.social played a major role in building the camera that will uncover dark matter, dark energy & more.

🔗: bit.ly/40fnFBs

#KavliAstro @vrubinobs.bsky.social

The bold bet that built a telescope Two decades ago, Stanford and SLAC took a gamble on an unproven telescope design that had no funding, no home, and no official backing. Now, with first images in hand and full operations on the horizo...

Twenty years ago, Stanford and SLAC took a big gamble. Today, it's finally starting to pay off, as the world's largest digital camera opened it's shutter for the first time. news.stanford.edu/stories/2025...

The first images from @vrubinobs.bsky.social are stunning! It took 7 hours to take this image of the Trifid and Lagoon nebulas, and this is a great sign of things to come for Rubin over the next decade!

Check out this story to learn more: www6.slac.stanford.edu/news/2025-06...

Tune in on YouTube for the full reveal 👀

www.youtube.com/live/Zv22_Am...

Preparing for the greatest cosmic movie ever made | Rubin Observatory Now that NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s LSST Camera has been installed, what’s next?

Turning on the world's largest camera @vrubinobs.bsky.social is much more complicated than just flipping a switch -- it's the culmination of years of meticulous planning and takes a large team making sure that everything is mission ready for first look tomorrow: rubinobservatory.org/news/prepari...

Earth’s Largest Camera Takes 3 Billion-Pixel Images of the Night Sky (Gift Article) At the heart of the new Vera C. Rubin Observatory is a digital camera that will create an unparalleled map of the cosmos.

Check out this article from the @nytimes.com to learn more about the camera our scientists at SLAC helped make for the @vrubinobs.bsky.social , which we expect will he able to catalog 20 billion galaxies and 17 billion stars over the next decade starting this Monday: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

A view looking into the LSST Camera's huge opening. The camera opening is a large black donut shape, with reflections of ceiling light revealing the presence of glass lenses. In the center of the opening is the camera's focal plane detector, which is made of 189 square CCD chips arranged in a roughly square shape. The camera is suspended on a white metal frame with white handrails. The completely white room gives the image an overall sterile feel.

‼️We're just TWO DAYS from Rubin's first images! #RubinFirstLook‼️ So let's talk images📷

NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory's LSST Camera — the largest digital camera ever built — produces 3200-megapixel images... 🔭🧪

But what does that mean, exactly? 🤨

📷: J. Orrell/SLAC Lab

National Academy of Sciences Elects Members and International Members - NAS WASHINGTON — The National Academy of Sciences announced today the election of 120 members and 30 international members in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original res...

Congratulations to Risa Wechsler on being elected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of her distinguished and continuing achievements in original research www.nasonline.org/news/2025-na...