Announcements

IPAC Names New Deputy Director

IPAC News • December 19th, 2022

Dr. Rachel Akeson, a senior science staff member at IPAC, has been appointed Deputy Director of IPAC. Her new appointment was announced on December 2, 2022, effective immediately. She succeeds Dr. Roc Cutri, who served as the Deputy Director for nearly two decades.

NASA’s NEO Surveyor Successfully Passes Key Milestone

Project News • December 7th, 2022

Agency officials have completed a rigorous technical and programmatic review, known as Key Decision Point C (KDP-C), and confirmed NASA’s Near-Earth Object Surveyor space telescope (NEO Surveyor) – the next flight mission out of the agency’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) – ...

NASA’s Roman Mission Completes Key Optical Components

Project News • December 6th, 2022

Engineers at Ball Aerospace, one of the industrial partners for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, have installed and aligned the element wheel assembly (pictured above) into the telescope’s Wide Field Instrument.

Comings and Goings 2022: New Leaders, New Roles, New Staff

IPAC News • December 1st, 2022

There were many changes in the IPAC team in 2022. We filled 24 positions with people who either joined IPAC afresh or with existing staff who transitioned to new roles. There were also leadership changes with Rachel Akeson becoming the IPAC Deputy Director, Harry Teplitz assuming the role of...

IPAC Names New Deputy Head of Science Staff

IPAC News • November 5th, 2022

Dr. Harry Teplitz, IPAC Scientist since 2002 and Task Lead for the Euclid NASA Science Center at IPAC (ENSCI) since 2014, has been appointed the new Deputy Head of Science Staff (DHoSS) at IPAC.

How NASA’s Roman Telescope Will Scan for Showstopping Explosions

Project News • November 3rd, 2022

What happens when the densest, most massive stars – that are also super small – collide? They send out brilliant explosions known as kilonovae. Think of these events as the universe’s natural fireworks. Theorists suspect they periodically occur all across the cosmos – both near and far....

IPAC Names New Task Lead of Roman Science Support Center

IPAC News • October 20th, 2022

Dr. Patrick Lowrance, a science staff member at IPAC since 2002, has been appointed the new Task Lead for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s Science Support Center.

NASA Telescope Takes 12-Year Time-Lapse Movie of Entire Sky

Project News • October 18th, 2022

Pictures of the sky can show us cosmic wonders; movies can bring them to life. Movies from NASA’s NEOWISE space telescope are revealing motion and change across the sky.

NEO Surveyor Project Passes Preliminary Design Review

Project News • October 12th, 2022

The NEO Surveyor Project recently passed the Project’s Preliminary Design Review (PDR), a major milestone in the NASA mission lifecycle. NASA’s review board, consisting of senior subject matter experts in relevant disciplines assembled from the scientific and industry community, convened over 3...

Star Duo Forms ‘Fingerprint’ in Space, NASA’s Webb Finds

IPAC News • October 12th, 2022

A new image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope reveals a remarkable cosmic sight: at least 17 concentric dust rings emanating from a pair of stars. IPAC Scientist Patrick Morris was part of the team that published their results in Nature Astronomy today. Located just over 5,000 light-years...