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Rubin LSST:UK

@lsstuk.bsky.social

The UK contribution to the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory @vrubinobs.bsky.social Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). https://www.rubin.ac.uk/

179 Posts599 Follower175 Folgt
ESO@eso.org · 5h ago

Earlier today, the discarded upper stage of a Falcon 9 rocket impacted on the Moon. As part of a coordinated observing campaign, our Very Large Telescope detected spectral lines of sodium and lithium gas in the impact plume lasting for 5-10 minutes after impact. 🔭 🧪 📷 ESO/C. Schmidt et al. 1/4

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot.bsky.social · last wk.

I'm absolutely devastated for colleagues at Jodrell Bank who found out this morning that funding for the UK's e-MERLIN radio telescope array will be terminated. This is a short-sighted move, to save a tiny fraction of the overall UK science budget. #SaveJodrellBank 🔭🧪 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Jodrell Bank's Lovell telescope faces axe in science cuts, BBC understands

Astronomers warn it would tear the heart out of UK science, and leave a generation untrained.

bbc.co.uk

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 3w ago

“What will the Lovell Telescope discover/enable 20 yrs from now? I can’t tell you, and that’s the point. It will either be something extraordinary that none of us can yet predict, or we will defund it and leave Cheshire with a rusting monument to unfulfilled potential and discoveries never made.” 🔭🧪

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot.bsky.social · last wk.

Think of all the awesome science-ing we could do with an extra £20M......🧪

Kirsty Grainger @kirstygrainger.bsky.social · last wk.

Earlier this year UKRI launched a funding call to invest £40M in ONE AI lab. www.ukri.org/opportunity/... For some unknown reason they decided to fund TWO AI labs at the cost of £60M. An extra £20M. Just found. That's the equivalent of 7 more years of Jodrell Bank. www.ukri.org/news/ukri-la...

NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory@vrubinobs.bsky.social · 2w ago

Severe Storms Impacting NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory Operations in Chile Chile has been impacted by an exceptionally powerful storm with heavy precipitation and widespread flooding affecting the communities where many of our colleagues live. 🔭🧪☄️ 🧵

NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory@vrubinobs.bsky.social · 2w ago

On this day in 1928, Dr. Vera C. Rubin was born 🔭🧪 At 14, she built her first telescope out of a cardboard tube. Her work provided the first convincing evidence of dark matter, & scientists' quest to understand dark matter led to the idea that became NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory 🌌

A composite image showing Dr. Vera Rubin in grayscale standing at a large telescope, with Rubin Observatory in teal in the background atop its rocky summit site.Grayscale woman with short hair and glasses uses a tabletop instrument.Woman with short white hair and glasses leaning against a marble wall.A young Vera Rubin with shoulder-length hair looking through a telescope at Vassar College around 1947 in a black and white photo.
Rubin LSST:UK@lsstuk.bsky.social · last mo.

"Restructuring research funding as a choice between discovery and application gets the economics wrong, the evidence wrong and the people wrong." Prof. Hiranya Peiris pushes back on the proposed funding cuts to UK particle physics and astronomy in a powerful way. 🔭 ⚛️ 🧪 rdcu.be/friwM

Discovery is not the opposite of application

Nature Reviews Physics - Restructuring research funding as a choice between discovery and application gets the economics wrong, the evidence wrong and the people wrong.

rdcu.be

Rubin LSST:UK@lsstuk.bsky.social · last mo.

The LSST will run for a decade – just how much sky can Rubin cover in a week? This map shows a representative week for the LSST. The tile colour represents the filter used for each exposure (u, g, r, i, z, and y), revealing how @vrubinobs.bsky.social will build a multicolour map of the Universe. 🔭

The color of the tile represents the filter used for each exposure (u, g, r, i, z, and y), revealing how Rubin rapidly builds a multicolour map of the Universe.
Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 3mo ago

🥳Congrats to @cometinterceptor.bsky.social on the completion of its 1st instrument! Fun fact: it'll launch before we know where it's going, to lie in wait in an L2 "parking orbit". On the discovery of an interesting comet heading into the solar system: off it will go to intercept! Launch 2029 🧪🔭⚛️

A cartoon of the journey of ESA Comet Interceptor mission from launch to is "Wait in parking" spot at the Sun-Earth L2 point. When an interesting comet is heading into our solar system it will transferring towards the comet and encountering it (credit: ESA)
Comet Interceptor@cometinterceptor.bsky.social · 3mo ago

The first completed flight instrument has been delivered! One step closer to launch 🚀🚀 www.imperial.ac.uk/news/article...

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Jim's started his 1st week as the new @royalastrosoc.bsky.social President with a💥, fighting #STFC funding cuts to astro, particle & nuclear physics 💪 "We urge you to commission a wider study of their impacts, not just on research, but on higher education and the economy as a whole"🔭🧪⚛️

Dear Lord Vallance, Scope of impact assessment for STFC cuts We are writing to you as the Presidents of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) and the Institute of Physics (IOP) to ask you to seek a full assessment of the impact of the cuts proposed to the particle physics, astronomy and nuclear (PPAN) budgets of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). As you know, the RAS represents more than 4,000 members (Fellows), three quarters of whom are based in the UK, and around half are involved in professional astronomy, space science and geophysics in some capacity. The Institute of Physics represents over 22,000 members working in occupations related to physics, including in academic and industrial research in the PPAN area. The chair of STFC’s PPAN Science Board, Professor Keith Grainge, confirms that he will lead a prioritisation exercise based on the potential cuts to PPAN science. While we in no way support the cuts, we welcome this engagement with the scientific community, but believe that its scope is far too limited. There are significant wider consequences from the proposals that fall beyond the current STFC assessment remit. In particular, the proposed reductions risk serious adverse impacts on university physics and astronomy departments. At a time when many higher education institutions are already facing acute financial pressures, further funding shocks could accelerate course closures, reduce research capacity, and weaken the sustainability of departments that are critical to the UK’s skills pipeline. While we welcome the commitment to 2025/26 postdoc numbers we are concerned as the proposed reductions will still threaten the recruitment of young people into science and risks reducing the supply of doctoral graduates into the wider economy, particularly if project cancellations lead to fewer postgraduate opportunities. In parallel, these decisions carry important implications for the UK’s international standing. Withdrawal from major programmes or a perceived instability in funding risks undermining our position as a trusted and reliable global partner in science, with long-term consequences for collaboration, influence, and the UK’s ability to attract and retain world-class talent. The IOP recently published evidence indicating that over a quarter of physics departments in universities are already at risk of closure . Many of these depend heavily on STFC research grants, which enable them to carry out programmes that make their departments appealing to undergraduates. As so called ‘STEM attractors’, there is related evidence that PPAN science is cited by 50% of physics undergraduates as a key reason for their choice of degree programme. In addition, the follow up evidence supplied to the Commons Select Committee on Science, Innovation and Technology by Professor Catherine Heymans (Astronomer Royal for Scotland), Professor Jon Butterworth and Dr Simon Williams included a survey of the destinations of PhD graduates. It demonstrated that after a decade around three quarters take their skills into the wider economy in areas including data science, AI, defence, teaching and finance, all critical areas for the UK . In these and other ways, PPAN plays a vital role in the supply of skills such as data acquisition, electronics, engineering and computing that are greatly valued in sectors such as defence, automotive, aerospace and other growth driving sectors of the economy. We support the ambition for science to drive growth and welcome additional investments in areas such as quantum, fusion and AI. However, particle physics, astronomy and nuclear are fundamental disciplinary pillars and we are concerned that further reductions to funding for these areas will jeopardise the flow of people, skills and knowledge into growth driving industries. Given the scale of the proposed cuts to PPAN science grants, still likely to be of the order of 30%, it is of vital importance that the leaderships of STFC and UKRI, and Government ministers in DSIT and also in DfE, are fully apprised of their consequences. It is our understanding from your public statements that these cuts are yet to be finalised. We therefore urge you to commission a wider study of their impacts, not just on research, but on higher education and the economy as a whole. Both our organisations would be very happy to assist with this work, and we would of course be delighted to meet you to discuss our concerns in more detail. Professor Jim Wild President, Royal Astronomical Society Professor Paul Howarth CBE President, Institute of Physics
Prof Jim Wild@jim-wild.bsky.social · 3mo ago

IOP President Paul Howarth and I have today written to Science Minister Lord Vallance calling for a full impact assessment of proposed STFC cuts to particle physics, astronomy and nuclear (PPAN) research.