Announcements

New Study Reveals NASA’s Roman Could Find 400 Earth-Mass Rogue Planets

Project News • July 19th, 2023

New research by scientists from NASA and Japan’s Osaka University suggests that rogue planets – worlds that drift through space untethered to a star – far outnumber planets that orbit stars.

#SoCaltech: Dawn Gelino

IPAC News • July 19th, 2023

“I have attended almost every AAS [American Astronomical Society] meeting since I began graduate school in 1996. Every job I’ve ever had was made possible through networking at the meetings. Many years later, I am the newest vice president of the AAS. The official mission of the AAS is to enhance...

IPAC’s Euclid NASA Science Center Is Ready for Launch

IPAC News • June 28th, 2023

It’s official: the Euclid telescope is planned to be launched into space starting on July 1, 2023, to embark on a six-year mission to create the largest, most accurate 3D map of the universe to understand the nature of dark energy and dark matter—and the Euclid NASA Science Center at IPAC (ENSCI)...

NASA’s Roman and ESA’s Euclid Will Team Up To Investigate Dark Energy

Project News • June 27th, 2023

A new space telescope named Euclid, an ESA (European Space Agency) mission with important contributions from NASA, is set to launch in July to explore why the universe’s expansion is speeding up. Scientists call the unknown cause of this cosmic acceleration “dark energy.” By May 2027, NASA’s...

IPAC Legend Jack Lampley Retires

IPAC News • June 21st, 2023

One of the original IPACers, and a beloved “father figure” to all IPACers, Jack Lampley, is stepping off after 41 years at Caltech/IPAC and more than 52 years at Caltech/JPL.

IRSA Newsletter: Issue 2023.4

Project News • May 24th, 2023

The latest IRSA Newsletter has information about ZTF Data Release 17, COSMOS2020 Catalog Release, availability of data from the IRTF/TEXES instrument, and IRSA Viewer updates.

NASA Completes Heart of Roman Space Telescope’s Primary Instrument

Project News • May 16th, 2023

The heart of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope was recently delivered to Ball Aerospace in Boulder, Colorado, for integration into the WFI (Wide Field Instrument). Called the FPS (Focal Plane System), it serves as the core of Roman’s camera.

Moon Gazing: The Long Story of Lunar Research at Caltech

Project News • May 15th, 2023

NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer mission marks a new chapter in Caltech’s enduring exploration of Earth’s closest celestial companion.

Caught in the Act: Astronomers Detect a Star Devouring a Planet

Project News • May 3rd, 2023

A new study published online Wednesday, May 3, in the journal Nature documents the first observation of an aging star swallowing a planet. After running out of fuel in its core, the star began to grow in size, shrinking the gap with its neighboring planet, eventually consuming it entirely.

The Young Cluster of Galaxies at the Edge of the Universe

IPAC News • April 26th, 2023

Takahiro Morishita, a staff scientist at IPAC, was first author on a paper using JWST data to look back in time to the early beginnings of the universe, a mere 650 million years after the Big Bang. and observe the baby stages of seven interacting galaxies forming into a protocluster. This...