🔥The 9th Round of Easy Loan, Earn $40 Reward is in progress❗️ ⏰ Promotion Period: January 15th - Feburary 15th, 2025 👉 Register now and check more details at gate.io/campaigns/358

This isn’t a sci-fi movie set. This is just what a Tuesday night at @CerroTololo looks like 🌌✨ #RealSkies #MilkyWayMood 📷: CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/S. Panda

When you have these views almost every night 🌌 Gemini Observatory North & UKIRT stand beneath the glowing Milky Way near the summit of Maunakea. That faint light? Zodiacal light, a faint glow caused by sunlight scattered by interplanetary dust. 📸GeminiObs/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Horálek

Say cheese 📷 Just like a handheld camera, the NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory LSST Camera has a shutter that slides back and forth to expose and then cover the focal plane. The nominal open/close time is 1 second. 📷: RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/NSF/DOE/AURA

🚨 ¡Nuevo espectáculo de planetario GRATIS! 🌌💥 Hoy lanzamos Mensajeros del Tiempo y el Espacio, un show que revela cómo @Geminiobs se está uniendo a telescopios como Rubin Observatory para capturar los momentos más salvajes, rápidos y misteriosos del cosmos. 🔗noirlab.edu/public/news/no…

🚨 New FREE planetarium show! 🌌💥 Today we are releasing Messengers of Time and Space, an immersive show that reveals how @Geminiobs is teaming up with telescopes like Rubin Observatory to capture the wildest, fastest, most mysterious moments in the cosmos. 🔗noirlab.edu/public/news/no…

🚨 SAVE THE DATE: The world's First Look at images from U.S. National Science Foundation–DOE Office of Science Rubin Observatory is coming June 23, 2025! Get ready for a preview of how Rubin Observatory will soon #CaptureTheCosmos in its decade-long survey 🌌. More details soon—stay up to date at rubinobservatory.org/news/rubin-fir…

Stars fly above 💫 while clouds roll below ☁️ in this time-lapse video of the Gemini North telescope in Hawai‘i, one half of @GeminiObservatory. This video captures hours of observing in just 40 seconds. 📷 International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/ J.Pollard

NSF–DOE NSF-DOE Rubin Observatory' 8.4-meter primary mirror is actually two mirrors in one, combined on one surface. This unique, compact design allows it to move quickly as it surveys the entire southern hemisphere sky every few nights. 📷: RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/NSF/DOE/AURA/H. Stockebrand

GHOST 👻, a powerful new instrument on the Gemini South telescope, just spied an ultra-hot Jupiter with ultra-fast winds! 🔥🌬️ This marks GHOST’s first exoplanet transit—and it’s just the beginning. Read more: ow.ly/FnHb50VZFFV

The Milky Way slides past the Robotically Controlled Telescope (RCT) in this timelapse captured at Kitt Peak National Observatory, a program of @noirlabastro. People carrying red lights occasionally illuminate the area. 📷: KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/R. Sparks

A fireball streaks across the morning sky above NSF Kitt Peak National Observatory, a Program of @NOIRLabastro. The sky is filled with blue-green airglow while the Sun starts to brighten the night from the east. 🔗noirlab.edu/public/images/… Credit: KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. Dai

Thousands of people across more than 30 countries have worked on NSF-DOE NSF-DOE Rubin Observatory — a global effort 🌎. This photosphere shows the Rubin Auxiliary Telescope (top) and Rubin itself (bottom-left). 📷: RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/NSF/DOE/AURA/P. Horálek (Institute of Physics in Opava)

Cosmic Cotton Candy 🍬✨This image of the Lagoon Nebula, or NGC 6523, looks sweet enough to eat! 😋 Twenty hours of data collected from Cerro Tololo, a Program of U.S. National Science Foundation @NOIRLabastro, went into making this pic. 📸 SSRO/PROMPT & CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA

Thinking about how far NSF-DOE Rubin Observatory has come 😌 💭 As First Look approaches on June 23, 2025 we’re looking back at the hard work and progress that have gone into this project. Exciting times ahead for Rubin! 📸 RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/NSF/DOE/AURA

Feeling crabby this Monday? 🦀 The Crab Nebula, certainly is! Inside is a pulsar– an ultra-dense remnant of a massive star. Pulsars rapidly spin beams of electromagnetic radiation from their magnetic poles like a frantic lighthouse. 📸: @KittPeakNatObs/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA

Meet the Whirlpool Galaxy, or M51! 👋🌌 In visible wavelengths, it shows dust lanes that cover and redden light from background stars. In the infrared, these dust lanes, warmed by starlight, glow brightly. 📸 Visible: KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, Infrared: @NASA/JPL-Caltech

I spy with my little eye Venus (the dot resting above NSF–DOE NSF-DOE Rubin Observatory) 🔎 Rubin will inventory the solar system, looking well beyond the planets. In 1 year, it’ll have detected more asteroids than all previous telescopes combined 🤯. 📸 RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/NSF/DOE/AURA

Just a little guy up past his bedtime 😴 Meet the ratón orejudo amarillento– a resident rodent to South America that’s most active around night. This 🐁was spotted at Cerro Pachón, admiring @Geminiobs South in action! 📸International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA

Save the Date! 🔭 NOIRLab Science Conference 2025: The Solar System in Context 🗓️ September 29 – October 2, 2025 📍 University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ Learn more: noirlab.edu/solar-system-i… 📧 Questions? [email protected]

Moon or movie prop? 🌕🎬 Another night of observing is almost starting at @CerroTololo, and just look at that Moon! It’s not a special effect. It’s not edited. It’s just the Moon illusion doing its thing. 😮✨ 🔗 noirlab.edu/public/images/… 📷: CTIO/NOIRLab/H. Stockebrand