SLAC topics

Particle Astrophysics & Cosmology (PAC) RSS feed

To explore the birth of the universe, star and galaxy formation and the structure of space and time, SLAC researchers help develop cutting-edge technologies for a range of sensitive experiments.

Speed of hydrogen gas in a rotating galaxy.
News Brief

The latest results combined weak lensing and galaxy clustering and incorporated four dark energy probes from a single experiment for the first time.

Photo of the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in the Chilean Andes at night.
News Release

First peer-reviewed paper using data from SLAC-built LSST Camera identifies an asteroid, nearly the size of eight football fields, rotating every two minutes.

Illustration showing asteroids
News Release

The state-of-the-art ‘big-data facility’ unveils its first images and video, bringing the night sky to life like never before.

This image combines 678 separate images taken by NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory in just over seven hours of observing time. Combining many images in this way clearly reveals otherwise faint or invisible details, such as the clouds of gas and dust that comprise the Trifid nebula (top) and the Lagoon nebula, which are several thousand light-years away from Earth
Feature

NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory is about to embark on its quest to capture the cosmos, marking the culmination of decades of work by...

A group photo in front of a large telescope mounting system.
Feature

NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory will add an unprecedented amount of cosmological data to the study of the structure and expansion of the Universe.

An illustration of a woman holding a book is surrounded by photographic negatives showing pictures of the universe.
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A look inside the data processing infrastructure built by the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory to handle the Universe’s greatest data challenge.

Computer code, circles and data overlaid on an image of a red-orange nebula.
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Now that NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s LSST Camera has been installed, what’s next?

A large black cylindrical camera is positioned in a telescope dome.
News Release

Using the largest digital camera in the world, Rubin Observatory will soon be ready to capture more data than any other observatory in history.

A person in a hard hat looks at a giant black lens cap surrounded by a mirror
News Brief

Rubin Observatory’s rapid scanning of the night sky will capture the largest sample of Type Ia supernovae yet, unlocking new insights into dark energy.

An illustration of a telescope scanning the night sky.
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A new center brings astrophysics, data science, and AI together to answer some of the universe’s biggest questions.

A rendering of a galaxy.
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AI is playing a key role in helping SLAC researchers find new galaxies and tiny neutrinos, and discover new drugs.

Diffraction pattern
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SLAC hosted two faculty members from institutions historically underrepresented in the research community via the Visiting Faculty Program.

Fred Lacy and Kolo Wamba stand in front experimental equipment.