Heloise Stevance, Dan Ryczanowski and Steven Gough-Kelly showcased some of the features of the
@lsstuk.bsky.social Broker #Lasair, which receives and processes up to 10 million alerts from @vrubinobs.bsky.social
every night, capturing the ever-changing cosmos.
Attending the @lsstuk.bsky.social All Hand meeting remotely today. I learned about this really nice summary of Oxford University's contributions to @vrubinobs.bsky.social
A screen shot of a weather app showing that it’s 11 degrees in Manchester. With sunny intervals and light winds.
It’s a sunny start to our All Hands Meeting in Manchester today. We’re teaming up with @eucliduk.bsky.social for a week of discussion, discovery and networking. 🔭
🛰️ Our European Service Module has successfully separated from Orion's crew module!
🚀 After propelling the spacecraft over 1 million km in deep space, it will now burn up in Earth's atmosphere, as the astronauts continue their journey home 🌍
View of spacecraft with three red and white main parachutes deployed, view of sunlit ocean behind.
View of spacecraft with three red and white main parachutes deployed, view of dark blue ocean behind.
✅ #Artemis II splashdown at 01:07 BST/02:07 CEST!
A great collaboration. Congratulations to all involved in this awesome inspiring mission.
Background 📷: RubinObs/NSF/DOE/NOIRLab/SLAC/AURA/H. Stockebrand
Want some lunchtime reading: how about some of the latest #astronomy research published by team members in @rasjournals.bsky.social ? The latest two papers explore mitigation for catalogue-based angular power spectra and isophote shape analysis: www.lsst.ac.uk/news/2026-04... 🔭
One for this week's diary...
Special Issue: Ariel: mission, science & community engagement
🔭 Studying space and planetary science?
Explore the new "Ariel: mission, science & community engagement" Special Issue from #RASTI, a journal from @rasjournals.bsky.social.
Discover today! oxford.ly/4tpymxB
Research software engineer Eduardo Toledo Romero is based at University of Edinburgh.
How does a software engineer find himself working on one of the world's most exciting astronomy projects? We asked one of our team members, Eduardo Toledo Romero, to find out. Read the interview here 🔭 : www.lsst.ac.uk/news/2026-03...
An artist impression of a spacecraft observing the interaction between the Sun and Earth. The Sun is at the top left, the Earth surrounded by magnetic field lines is at the bottom right, and the spacecraft is at the top between the centre and the right. At the bottom left is the text 'Smile launch kit'. At the top right is the ESA logo and at the bottom right is a red circle with a spacecraft labelled Smile in it.
With April around the corner, delve into our Smile launch kit to get ready for launch day! 👇
www.esa.int/Science_Expl... (available in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and Chinese)
📺 Live broadcast 9 April 08:10 CEST 👉 watch.esa.int
🙋 If you have questions, #askESA
🔭 🧪 🌞
At a recent Science Select Committee, @astroroyalscot.bsky.social, speaking for the UK science community, called the proposed cuts "Genuinely catastrophic" and warned they could lock Britain out of globally important projects. Listen to the audio version here: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/... 🔭
British science excels at asking questions that help us understand the Universe. This BBC InDepth report by @pallabg.bsky.social highlights the wide-ranging impacts of a likely 30% cut to funding for UK particle physics and astronomy research. 🔭https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czr0zmzzp84o
Wondering what makes the @vrubinobs.bsky.social such a powerful discovery engine? This excellent new video from Slac National Accelerator Laboratory explains all. 🔭
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMo4...
Each alert includes three “postage stamp” images — the left shows the template image, the center shows the new image, and the right shows the subtracted, or difference, image. The object of interest for a particular alert is centered in the images. In the case of the supernova alert at the bottom, the bright spots in the upper left corners of the template and new images are the center of the supernova’s host galaxy. The supernova itself — not seen in the template image — is clearly revealed in the center of the difference image. Alert images with classifications provided by ALeRCE & Lasair.
This compilation contains 5 examples of alerts. Each alert includes 3 images – template, new, and subtracted image. The supernova itself — not seen in the template image — is clearly revealed in the center of the difference image. 🔭
For the supernova alert at the bottom, the bright spots in the upper left corners of the template and new images are the centre of the supernova’s host galaxy.
📷 NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory/NOIRLab/SLAC/AURA Acknowledgement: Alert images with classifications provided by ALeRCE & Lasair. 🔭
Last week the @vrubinobs.bsky.social public alerts stream went live and a firehose of data began to flow. The UK's Lasair data broker stepped up to the plate, processing 800,000 alerts overnight. We're excited at the prospect of up to 7 million alerts per night! 🔭
😀
Pleased to see #IRIS #Somerville computer @epcc.bsky.social can handle 1M+ events to be classified by @lsstuk.bsky.social #Lasair each night. On Tuesday, @vrubinobs.bsky.social began streaming details of changes in our night sky: a huge milestone for survey astronomy - www.lsst.ac.uk/news/2026-02...
🙌
Lasair is a clever software system that allows users to build their own filters to find exactly what they want. Congratulations to the team from @physicsastronomyed.bsky.social @oxfordphysics.bsky.social and @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social . Find out more about Lasair at lasair.lsst.ac.uk 🔭
A graphic showing the Rubin Observatory as a white observatory building on a dark hilltop. The night sky is in the background, with data alerts dotted across the sky.
Hunting down supernovae in near real time! Last night, the UK data broker Lasair ingested and rapidly processed 800,000 alerts as the @vrubinobs.bsky.social public alerts stream began! Now anyone can observe astronomical events as they unfold thanks to Rubin’s data brokers. What a milestone! 🔭
A couple of weeks ago I was asked to speak at the AI and Ethics conference organised at Oxford - my talk has now been put online and summarised in a written piece you can read for free!
After the shenanigans at NeurIPS, scientific rigour is more important than ever
www.ox.ac.uk/news/2026-01...
Dr Héloïse Stevence is a Schmidt AI in Science Fellow at the University of Oxford.
We catch up with Héloïse Stevence @sydonahi.bsky.social to talk astronomy and machine learning – and discover how many Rubin images this Schmidt AI in Science Fellow can classify per minute with the human eye. Read our latest In the Spotlight interview: www.lsst.ac.uk/news/2026-02... 🔭
J'arrive!
@oxfordphysics.bsky.social is one of the OGs of Rubin UK and has been championing UK inclusion in @vrubinobs.bsky.social since 2014. This piece explains more and talks to some of Oxford's key Rubin contributors, incl. @aprajitaverma.bsky.social & @chrislintott.bsky.social 🔭
tinyurl.com/56wcbkwe
"[The UK's space-related industry] should be a national success story but instead we are facing the possibility of unsettling and destabilising threats to funding for cutting edge science," says @chrislintott.bsky.social on the BBC today: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... 🔭
Just off the 🏴radio after a lovely #Artemis-II return to the moon chat with @ollopa11.bsky.social! Leo taught me that the Orion capsule is the first moon-mission with a toilet-cubicle on board! The 1970s Apollo astronauts were afforded no such dignity😳 🛰️
ℹ️: www.skyatnightmagazine.com/news/artemis...