Project News

First Asteroid Found Inside Orbit of Venus

ZTF • News Release • January 15th, 2020

A rare asteroid orbiting snugly within the inner confines of our solar system has been discovered by Caltech's Zwicky Transient Facility, or ZTF, a survey camera based at Palomar Observatory. The newfound body, named 2020 AV2, is the first asteroid found to orbit entirely within the...

Public Data Release 2

ZTF • News Release • December 11th, 2019

The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) and IPAC at the California Institute of Technology announce the second ZTF Public Data Release. ZTF is an optical time-domain survey covering the northern sky visible from Palomar Observatory.

The Zwicky Transient Facility Begins Nightly Concurrent Observations of TESS Northern Fields

ZTF • News Release • July 27th, 2019

The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) has started to conduct a nightly survey of the TESS fields in g- and r-band. In 2019-2020 all of the 13 northern TESS sectors will be covered by ZTF if accessible from Palomar. In addition to the ZTF alert streams provided by various alert brokers, all...

ZTF found Dead Stars Whipping Around Each Other in Minutes

ZTF • News Release • July 25th, 2019

Two dead stars have been spotted whipping around each other every seven minutes. The rare celestial find was made using Caltech's Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), a state-of-the-art sky survey at Palomar Observatory that rapidly scans the night skies looking for anything that moves, blinks, or...

ZTF Spots Asteroid with Shortest Year

ZTF • News Release • July 8th, 2019

Astronomers have spotted an unusual asteroid with the shortest "year" known for any asteroid. The rocky body, dubbed 2019 LF6, is about a kilometer in size and circles the sun roughly every 151 days. In its orbit, the asteroid swings out beyond Venus and, at times, comes closer in than Mercury,...

Public Data Release 1

ZTF • News Release • May 8th, 2019

The first public data release of the Zwicky Transient Facility (#ZTF) is out! This release includes data products from the public portion of the survey spanning March to December 2018. Products include ~3.4 million single-exposure images, ~102,000 co-added images, accompanying source catalog...

Zwicky Transient Facility Nabs Several Supernovae a Night

ZTF • News Release • February 7th, 2019

The results are rolling in from Caltech's newest state-of-the-art sky-surveying camera, which began operations at the Palomar Observatory in March 2018. Called the Zwicky Transient Facility, or ZTF, the new instrument has so far discovered 50 small near-Earth asteroids and more than 1,100...

Astronomers Find Clues to the Origins of Exploding Dead Stars

ZTF • News Release • February 7th, 2019

Dying stars known as Type Ia supernovae are often referred to as standard candles because they all emit the same, well-known amount of light when they explode and can therefore be used to measure distances in the universe. GROWTH astronomers have now observed a very peculiar Type Ia supernova...

Asteroid from ‘Rare Species’ Sighted in the Cosmic Wild

ZTF • News Release • February 5th, 2019

Astronomers have discovered an asteroid looping through the inner solar system on an exotic orbit. The unusual object is among the first asteroids ever found whose orbit is confined almost entirely within the orbit of Venus. The asteroid's existence hints at potentially significant numbers of...

Zwicky Transient Facility Opens Its Eyes to the Volatile Cosmos

ZTF • News Release • November 14th, 2017

The latest workhorse camera at the Palomar Observatory can scan the majority of the northern sky every night, looking for cosmic events as they happen.

First Asteroid Found Inside Orbit of Venus

ZTF • January 15th, 2020

A rare asteroid orbiting snugly within the inner confines of our solar system has been discovered by Caltech's Zwicky Transient Facility, or ZTF, a survey camera based at...

Public Data Release 2

ZTF • December 11th, 2019

The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) and IPAC at the California Institute of Technology announce the second ZTF Public Data Release. ZTF is an optical time-domain survey covering...

The Zwicky Transient Facility Begins Nightly Concurrent Observations of TESS Northern Fields

ZTF • July 27th, 2019

The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) has started to conduct a nightly survey of the TESS fields in g- and r-band. In 2019-2020 all of the 13 northern TESS sectors will be...

ZTF found Dead Stars Whipping Around Each Other in Minutes

ZTF • July 25th, 2019

Two dead stars have been spotted whipping around each other every seven minutes. The rare celestial find was made using Caltech's Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), a...

ZTF Spots Asteroid with Shortest Year

ZTF • July 8th, 2019

Astronomers have spotted an unusual asteroid with the shortest "year" known for any asteroid. The rocky body, dubbed 2019 LF6, is about a kilometer in size and circles the sun...

Public Data Release 1

ZTF • May 8th, 2019

The first public data release of the Zwicky Transient Facility (#ZTF) is out! This release includes data products from the public portion of the survey spanning March to...

Zwicky Transient Facility Nabs Several Supernovae a Night

ZTF • February 7th, 2019

The results are rolling in from Caltech's newest state-of-the-art sky-surveying camera, which began operations at the Palomar Observatory in March 2018. Called the Zwicky...

Astronomers Find Clues to the Origins of Exploding Dead Stars

ZTF • February 7th, 2019

Dying stars known as Type Ia supernovae are often referred to as standard candles because they all emit the same, well-known amount of light when they explode and can therefore...

Asteroid from ‘Rare Species’ Sighted in the Cosmic Wild

ZTF • February 5th, 2019

Astronomers have discovered an asteroid looping through the inner solar system on an exotic orbit. The unusual object is among the first asteroids ever found whose orbit is...

Zwicky Transient Facility Opens Its Eyes to the Volatile Cosmos

ZTF • November 14th, 2017

The latest workhorse camera at the Palomar Observatory can scan the majority of the northern sky every night, looking for cosmic events as they happen.