October 3, 2023 | UW News | James Urton
A team of scientists has been tracking a bright object in the sky. But it’s not a star. It’s a new type of commercial satellite. Astronomers are trying to understand how its brightness and transmissions will interfere with Earth-based observations of the universe — and what can be done to minimize these effects as more […]
Read More »October 2, 2023 | Space.com
“It is unacceptably bright for many sky observers around the world,” Meredith Rawls (UW, DiRAC) co-author of a paper on the finding and member of the IAU Center for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference (IAU CPS), told Space.com.
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October 2, 2023 | Newsweek
A new satellite has become one of the brightest objects in the night sky, sparking concerns among scientists for the future of astronomy. Meredith Rawls (UW, DiRAC) is featured.
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September 3, 2023 | JAMIE SWENSON | UW Magazine
In northern Chile in 2025, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory will begin gathering images of the night sky. “First light” (as astronomers call the moment a telescopic eye first opens) will inaugurate the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST)—the most ambitious and comprehensive optical astronomy survey ever undertaken. The UW was one of four […]
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July 31, 2023 | UW News | James Urton
An asteroid discovery algorithm — designed to uncover near-Earth asteroids for theVera C. Rubin Observatory’s upcoming 10-year survey of the night sky — has identifiedits first “potentially hazardous” asteroid, a term for space rocks in Earth’s vicinity thatscientists like to keep an eye on. The roughly 600-foot-long asteroid, designated 2022SF289, was discovered during a test […]
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May 30, 2023 | UW Story | James Urton
How UW astronomers, the world’s largest telescope and a revolutionary survey of space will upend what we thought we knew about the universe. Full article is featured on the UW Homepage here.
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February 1, 2023 | National Geographic, Michael Greshko
“The Zwicky Transient Facility, which found the new green comet, provides a preview of what to expect from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, a gigantic facility currently under construction in Chile. Once operational in 2024, it will be the biggest survey telescope ever built, opening up a whole new era of cosmic understanding. “
Read More »January 19, 2023 | EOS | Sarah Scoles
Sometime this coming March, a network of 10 small satellites winged with solar panels is scheduled to launch into Earth’s low orbit. Though likely invisible to the naked eye, the satellites will be part of a future herd of hundreds that, according to the Space Development Agency, or SDA, will bolster the United States’ defense […]
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January 19, 2023 | The Economist
January 10, 2023 | UW News | James Urton
UW doctoral student Anastasios “Andy” Tzanidakis announced the discovery of a rare type of binary star system. Tzanidakis and Dr. James Davenport, a UW research assistant professor of astronomy and associate director of the DiRAC Institute, were investigating why the star Gaia17bpp had gradually brightened over a 2 1/2-year period. In some investigative follow-up work, […]
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