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Kitt Peak Observatory Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory Community Science and Data Center AURA NSF Contact Us | Careers | Intranet Astronomers Home Page Home NOAO home page Astronomer's home page About News Scientific Staff Visitors Director's Office Organization & Sites Committees NOAO Library Public Documents & Reports Contact Us Facilities CTIO KPNO CSDC Gemini SMARTS SOAR WIYN LSST TMT Other Operating Facilities CHARA Community Access Hale IRTF Keck LBT Magellan MMT Subaru ARC CFHT HET NPOI Other Future Facilities DCT GMT MRO Site Data (e.g. seeing) Observing Available Facilities Current Telescopes/Instruments Proposal Information Schedules Observing Preparation Post-Observing Feedback Financial Support How to Acknowledge Data NOAO Data Archives Major Surveys Software Documentation NOAO Data Lab ANTARES AEON Other NOAO data O/IR System Community Science and Data Center US National Gemini Office US Extremely Large Telescope Program Activities Science Highlights Surveys Meetings Colloquia Research Opportunities Decadal Survey Opportunities Jobs Visitor Programs Postdoc Programs Research Support Safety Lightning Conduct Public visits & activities canceled NSF's NOIRLab is monitoring the development of COVID-19 . To ensure the safety of its staff and the public, it has been decided as a precautionary measure to suspend public visits to Cerro Tololo, Cerro Pachón in Chile, Maunakea in Hawai'i and to Kitt Peak in Arizona, and also suspend public events, media visits and classroom visits in all NOIRLab locations until further notice. After an internal Operations Restart Readiness Review, Gemini North in Hawai‘i has been given the green light on their plan to restart nighttime observations on the night of 19 May. AURA Status During Current Situation in Chile -- Credit: National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory/AURA/NSF/P. Marenfeld NOAO Unites with Gemini and LSST As of 1 October 2019, NOAO has joined with Gemini Observatory and LSST operations to create a new organization, NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NSF’s OIR Lab). As the preeminent US center for ground-based optical-infrared astronomy, the new organization brings together diverse pathways for astronomical exploration, serves as a focal point for community coordination and collaboration, and enables the discoveries of the future. The integration is part of a long-term evolutionary trend and is reminiscent of the origin of NOAO itself. Read more in this Currents article and in the NSF’s OIR Lab press release . NEID, on the 3.5-m WIYN telescope on KPNO, has made its first observations . It will measure the motion of nearby stars with extreme precision, allowing us to typify Earth-sized exoplanets. DESI, a new instrument on the Kitt Peak 4-m Mayall telescope has opened its array of thousands of fiber-optic “eyes” to the cosmos and successfully captured the light from distant galaxies. Dynamical footprints of two ancient migration events have been uncovered in our galactic neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy, using the KPNO Mayall and Gemini North telescopes. Astronomers have discovered the most distant protocluster of galaxies detected to date, 13 billion light years away. NOAO astronomer Chien-Hsiu Lee is a member of the discovery team. The Event Horizon Telescope team that made the first image of a supermassive black hole has been awarded the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics . NOAO Astronomer Tod Lauer is a team member. Pandia, Ersa, Eirene, Philophrosyne and Eupheme — these are the new names of five of the moons of Jupiter that were discovered last year with the Dark Energy Camera on the Blanco 4-m telescope at CTIO. The SOAR telescope at CTIO has just completed the first observing night for AEON, a new network of telescopes designed to enable rapid follow up of the changing night sky. The Kitt Peak Mayall’s Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument project, which will conduct the most ambitious cosmic cartography experiment ever, is featured in this Nature news article . A Whirlpool Warhol : It all depends on how you look at it—galaxies appear different in visible light (top left image, taken with the KPNO 2.1m) than at longer wavelengths, in the infrared. What’s Your Moonshot? Newsweek profiles NOAO Astronomer Aaron Meisner whose citizen science project, Backyard Worlds, aims to discover cold new worlds. -- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Recent News • NOAO Press Releases NOAO is the national center for ground-based nighttime astronomy in the United States and is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA). under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation . If you would like information about solar astronomy, visit the National Solar Observatory . If you would like information about radio astronomy, visit the National Radio Astronomy Observatory ....