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NOIRLab
@NOIRLabAstro
@NSF NOIRLab is the preeminent US national center for ground-based, nighttime optical and infrared astronomy. Para español siga a @NOIRLabAstroES
noirlab.edu/public/
Joined September 2019
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    NOIRLab
    @NOIRLabAstro
    Apr 15
    BREAKING: The largest 3D map of the Universe is now complete 🌌 Last night @desisurvey, mounted on the Nicholas U/ Mayall 4 meter telescope at @KittPeakNatObs, finished its 5-year survey of the cosmos, mapping 47M+ galaxies and quasars. 🔗noirlab.edu/public/news/no…
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    NOIRLab
    @NOIRLabAstro
    Oct 3, 2022
    Nailed it! The SOAR Telescope in Chile, operated by @NOIRLabAstro, captured the more than 10,000 kilometers of trail left behind after @NASA's DART spacecraft hit Dimorphos. Credit: CTIO/NOIRLab/SOAR/NSF/AURA/T. Kareta (Lowell Observatory), M. Knight (US Naval Academy)
    This image captures the vast plume of dust and debris blasted from the surface of the asteroid Dimorphos by NASA’s DART spacecraft when it impacted on 26 September 2022. The more than 10,000 kilometer long dust trail can be seen stretching from the center to the right-hand edge of the field of view.
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    NOIRLab
    @NOIRLabAstro
    Jul 21, 2025
    Say it 3 times: Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse. Astronomers using @GeminiObs North found a hidden companion star orbiting inside Betelgeuse’s atmosphere, the first close-in companion ever seen around a supergiant star. 🔗 noirlab.edu/public/news/no… 📷GeminiObs/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA
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    NOIRLab
    @NOIRLabAstro
    Sep 4, 2025
    New images of interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS! ☄️In these new images taken from @GeminiObs South in Chile, you can see the growing tail of the comet and the glowing coma. 🔗 noirlab.edu/public/news/no… Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/Shadow the Scientist
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    NOIRLab
    @NOIRLabAstro
    Jul 30, 2025
    ☄️ Interstellar alert! The NSF–DOE @VRubinObs has captured this video of Comet 3I/ATLAS — the third interstellar object ever discovered — 10 days before its official detection on 1 July 2025 by the ATLAS survey. #RubinObservatory #Comet3I #Astronomy #Science
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    NOIRLab
    @NOIRLabAstro
    Apr 13, 2023
    The iconic image of the supermassive black hole at the center of Messier 87, has received its first official makeover, thanks to a new machine-learning technique known as PRIMO! noirlab.edu/public/news/no… 🧵⬇️
    The image of the M87 supermassive black hole originally published by the EHT collaboration in 2019 (left); and a new image generated by the PRIMO algorithm using the same data set (right).
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    NOIRLab
    @NOIRLabAstro
    Nov 11, 2022
    You don’t get this view of the Gemini South telescope very often but when you do... it's fur-nomenal! #HappyFriday from one of our favorite spots at Cerro Pachón in Chile 🦊🔭! Credit: @GeminiObs/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA
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    NOIRLab
    @NOIRLabAstro
    Feb 24, 2021
    This breathtaking #ImageOfTheWeek features two lightning phenomena: a red sprite & a blue jet from the perspective of the @GeminiObs cloud cams. It is extremely rare to capture these phenomena on camera. ow.ly/K15W50DJ9vp Credit:@GeminiObs/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/A. Smith
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    NOIRLab
    @NOIRLabAstro
    Jun 14, 2023
    Below the southern skies, the telescopes of @CerroTololo, a Program of @NSF’s @NOIRLabastro, bask in the starlight of the brilliant Milky Way in this #imageoftheweek. noirlab.edu/public/images/…
    Speckled with multi-colored stars, our home galaxy in this image stretches down into the city-lit horizon, just grazing past the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope (left) and SMARTS 1.5-meter Telescope (right). The Small and Large Magellanic Clouds that accompany our home galaxy are seen to the left of the Blanco telescope. In between the telescopes blooms a deep shade of red that permeates through the tendrils of the Milky Way. This is the Gum Nebula, an emission nebula that blazes with the light of gas ionized by its host stars.
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    NOIRLab
    @NOIRLabAstro
    May 11, 2021
    Interact with new images of #Jupiter from @GeminiObs & @HubbleTelescope. Compare observations at three different types of light & explore the gas giant’s clouds yourself! Learn more & toggle between images here: ow.ly/QblR50EKk10 @UCB_Astronomy
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    NOIRLab
    @NOIRLabAstro
    Jun 23, 2025
    This is it. The FIRST released video from @VRubinObs. A new era of astronomy starts now! ✨ How many galaxies do you think are in this image? 10 MILLION 🤯 Here, Rubin’s view is focused on the southern region of the Virgo Cluster. 📹: RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/NSF/DOE/AURA
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    NOIRLab
    @NOIRLabAstro
    Apr 3, 2024
    The world’s largest digital camera for astronomy is complete! Once in place on @VRubinObs in Chile, the 3200-megapixel camera will gather an unprecedented amount of data about our Universe. Congrats @SLAClab team! Read more: noirlab.edu/public/news/no…
    LSST Camera Deputy Project Manager Travis Lange shines a flashlight into the LSST Camera.
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    NOIRLab
    @NOIRLabAstro
    Nov 4, 2020
    This #ImageOfTheWeek was timed to capture an almost perfectly full Moon framing #GeminiSouth. The other two telescopes caught between the red rocks of #CerroPachón & blue skies are #SOAR (left) & the almost finished @VRubinObs (right). ow.ly/l45y50CbIuS #NOIRLab @GeminiObs
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    NOIRLab
    @NOIRLabAstro
    Mar 19, 2025
    Is dark energy changing over time? By mapping nearly 15 million galaxies & quasars, the @desisurvey's largest 3D map of our Universe suggests that dark energy could be changing over time 🤯 noirlab.edu/public/news/no… 📷DESI/DOE/KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/R. Proctor
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