Press Releases

Dark Energy Camera Captures Circinus West Molecular Cloud

Science Release: 24 April 2025 — noirlab2515

Circinus West: A Dark Nebula Harboring a Nest of Newly Formed Stars

A celestial shadow known as the Circinus West molecular cloud creeps across this image captured from Chile with the 570-megapixel Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera — one of the most powerful digital cameras in the world. Within this stellar nursery's opaque boundaries, infant stars ignite within cold, dense gas and dust, while outflows hurtle leftover material into space.
Zhúlóng: The most distant spiral galaxy

Science Release: 16 April 2025 — noirlab2516

NSF NOIRLab Astronomer Discovers Oldest Known Spiral Galaxy in the Universe

An international team led by NSF NOIRLab astronomer Christina Williams has discovered the most distant spiral galaxy known to date. Named Zhúlóng, meaning ‘Torch Dragon’ in Chinese mythology, this ultra-massive system existed just one billion years after the Big Bang, and yet it shows a surprisingly mature structure. Zhúlóng was discovered as part of the PANORAMIC Survey conducted on the James Webb Space Telescope.
Gemini South Captures Asteroid 2024 YR4

Science Release: 8 April 2025 — noirlab2514

Gemini South Observes Shape and Origin of Near-Earth Asteroid 2024 YR4

Using observations from the Gemini South telescope in Chile, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, partly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and operated by NSF NOIRLab, astronomers have constructed a 3D representation of the newly discovered near-Earth asteroid 2024 YR4. The team determined that the unusually-shaped rock is one of the largest objects in recent history that could impact the Moon, and that it likely originated from the main asteroid belt.
Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope

Science Release: 19 March 2025 — noirlab2513

Latest Dark Energy Survey Data Suggest Possible Variations in Dark Energy Over Time

A groundbreaking new study using the Dark Energy Survey (DES) final datasets suggests potential inconsistencies in the standard cosmological model, known as ΛCDM. If confirmed, these findings could fundamentally alter our understanding of the Universe. DES was conducted using the 570-megapixel Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera (DECam), mounted on the U.S. National Science Foundation Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, a Program of NSF NOIRLab.
DESI Year-3 Fan Plot

Science Release: 19 March 2025 — noirlab2512

Tantalizing Hints That Dark Energy is Evolving — New Results and Data Released by the DESI Project

The DESI collaboration has published a new analysis of dark energy using their first three years of collected data, which spans nearly 15 million galaxies and quasars. Combined with studies of the cosmic microwave background, supernovae, and weak lensing, the analysis hints that dark energy changes over time. Data Release 1, containing data from DESI’s survey validation and first year of observations, has now been made available for scientists and the public to explore.

Images of the Week

Seeing Double?

23 April 2025 — iotw2517

Seeing Double?
All (Star) Trails Lead to Rubin

16 April 2025 — iotw2516

All (Star) Trails Lead to Rubin
The Moon: Inspiration and Frustration

9 April 2025 — iotw2515

The Moon: Inspiration and Frustration
Cascading Meteors Over KPNO

2 April 2025 — iotw2514

Cascading Meteors Over KPNO
Occultation of Mars from Kitt Peak National Observatory

26 March 2025 — iotw2513

Occultation of Mars from Kitt Peak National Observatory
Total Lunar Eclipse Seen from Cerro Tololo

19 March 2025 — iotw2512

Total Lunar Eclipse Seen from Cerro Tololo
Hurry, Make a Wish!

12 March 2025 — iotw2511

Hurry, Make a Wish!
Renewal and Discovery at Kitt Peak

5 March 2025 — iotw2510

Renewal and Discovery at Kitt Peak
Gemini North Under a Blanket of Airglow

26 Feb. 2025 — iotw2509

Gemini North Under a Blanket of Airglow
The Value of Being Metal-Poor

19 Feb. 2025 — iotw2508

The Value of Being Metal-Poor

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Sandbox 1

23 April 2025

Sharpening our cosmic focus

Three decades ago, physicist Tony Tyson sat in the control room of the U.S. National Science Foundation Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope, located on a mountaintop in Chile. At the time, the Blanco telescope, part of Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, a Program of NSF NOIRLab, was one of the largest and most advanced telescopes in the world.
The LSST Camera installed on the telescope

11 April 2025

Preparing for the greatest cosmic movie ever made

High up on the top of Cerro Pachón in northern Chile, NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science (DOE), is nearing completion. At the heart of the facility, a pivotal moment in the project’s scientific adventure is unfolding. After more than 20 years of meticulous research and development, and weeks of testing, the LSST Camera has been successfully installed on the Simonyi Survey Telescope.
DESI Year-3 Fan Plot

19 March 2025

Two Cosmological Surveys Strengthen Hints That Standard Model of Cosmology Is Wrong

Two of the world’s most advanced cosmological surveys — the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Survey in Arizona and the Dark Energy Survey in Chile, both with instrumentation and operations support provided by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science and hosted by NSF NOIRLab — are challenging the standard model of cosmology. The results suggest a time-varying dark energy, which, if confirmed, could lead to a fundamental shift in our understanding of the cosmos.
Artist Impression of the exoplanet WASP-76b

30 Jan. 2025

IGRINS on Gemini South Detects Surprising Signatures in Dynamic Atmosphere of Exoplanet WASP-121b

Using the visiting IGRINS instrument on the Gemini South telescope, a team of astronomers examined the atmosphere of ultra-hot Jupiter WASP-121b and found hints that it may have formed much closer to its star than previously believed possible. This discovery was uniquely enabled by IGRINS’s ability to simultaneously detect both metallic and icy chemical signatures, a feat typically accomplished using two different instruments.
Gabriel Pérez inside Gemini North mirror cell

18 Dec. 2024

A Sketch Says a Thousand Words

If you come to Gabriel Pérez Zúñiga with a problem, there’s a good chance you’ll be getting a sketch. The Principal Mechanical Engineer doesn’t just want you to know how to fix things — he also wants you to understand how they work. For five decades Perez’s sketches and methodical approach to problem-solving inspired his colleagues, and his engineering expertise helped get three major NSF NOIRLab telescopes off the ground.

Our Programs

Logo of the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory

From the first observations in 1965, Cerro Tololo, located in Chile, has served as the principal platform for U.S. astronomical investigation of the southern skies.

Logo of the Community Science and Data Center

Programs within the Community Science and Data Center support and enable a broad range of astronomical community science activities across the US ground-based optical and infrared system.

Logo of the Kitt Peak National Observatory

Founded in 1958, Kitt Peak National Observatory is home to one of the largest arrays of optical and radio telescopes in the world.

Logo of the International Gemini Observatory

The Gemini Observatory consists of twin 8.1-meter diameter optical/infrared telescopes located on two of the best observing sites on the planet.

Logo of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory

Vera C. Rubin Observatory, currently under construction on Cerro Pachón in Chile, is an 8-meter-class telescope coupled to a 3.2-gigapixel camera – the world’s largest digital camera ever fabricated for optical astronomy.