Latest news with #Andes
Geek Wire
32 minutes ago
- Science
- Geek Wire
The Rubin Observatory is throwing a big party to reveal its first pictures — and you're invited
After more than 20 years of planning and construction, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory is ready for its grand opening, and the world is invited. The observatory in the foothills of the Chilean Andes features a monster of a telescope, with an 8.4-meter-wide (28-foot-wide) mirror, coupled with what's said to be the world's largest digital camera. It will survey the night sky every night for at least 10 years, producing about 20 trillion bytes of data every 24 hours. It would take you more than three years of watching Netflix, or over 50 years of listening to Spotify, to use that amount of data, according to the Rubin team. The first images and videos are due to be unveiled on Monday, during a 'First Look' webcast that will be shared online and at more than 300 in-person watch parties across the globe. What will the images look like? Mario Juric knows, but he isn't telling. 'I cannot tell you what's on them, but I can tell you we just finished them, and they look amazing,' Juric, a member of the Rubin team and the director of the University of Washington's DiRAC Institute, says on the Fiction Science podcast. 'I did not spend a day doing what I was supposed to be doing, because I just spent it browsing through the images. … I could teach an entire class by just zooming in on different parts of this image and explaining what this object is.' There could be a lot of teachable moments ahead: The observatory's Simonyi Survey Telescope is expected to detect millions of previously unseen celestial bodies in our solar system, potentially including a hypothetical world known as Planet X or Planet 9. It'll serve as an early warning system for transient cosmic phenomena such as supernovas or gamma-ray bursts. And it could help scientists shed new light on the mysteries behind dark energy and dark matter. Mario Juric (UW Photo) The dark matter angle is particularly apt, because the observatory is named after the late Vera Rubin, an astronomer who analyzed the rotation rates of galaxies to come up with some of the most solid evidence we have that invisible dark matter exists. Even before Rubin died in 2016, her fellow scientists were laying the groundwork for the observatory that would eventually bear her name. In 2003, they started discussing potential sites for what was then called the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, or LSST. Juric recalls attending one of the early discussions in Seattle. At the time, astronomers were just finishing up a successful project known as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. 'People were asking, what do we build next? What's the next major step in this idea to go and digitize the cosmos?' Juric says. 'And the idea was to build something like Rubin.' In 2008, the project received a $30 million boost from Microsoft executive Charles Simonyi and the company's co-founder, Bill Gates. Eventually, the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy kicked in hundreds of millions of dollars to support the observatory's construction in Chile. Turning data into discoveries The observatory's Simonyi Survey Telescope features a unique three-mirror design that maximizes the instrument's field of view. It's made to move across a swath of sky in just a few seconds, allowing the LSST Camera to capture a 3,200-megapixel image in 15 seconds and then switch to take the next image five seconds later. That speed makes it possible for the observatory to map the sky in high resolution every three days. It takes less than 60 seconds to transfer each image over fiber-optic cables from Chile to the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California for an initial round of processing. The flood of imagery is distributed to data centers around the world, and scientists can access and filter the data through an online portal. Astronomical data analysis is the specialty of UW's DiRAC Institute. Its name is an acronym, standing for Data-intensive Research in Astrophysics and Cosmology. Astronomers have traditionally been 'physicists who look up,' Juric says, but he argues that working with Rubin's rush of data will require a new set of skills — the kinds of skills that are being taught at the DiRAC Institute. 'You now need to become a data scientist, and you need to become a really good statistician,' he says. 'That's the kind of background that you're going to need to make sense out of all these data that Rubin is going to deliver to us.' A software tool that Juric helped develop, known as Sorcha, hints at the enormity of the task ahead. Sorcha makes predictions about how much data will be generated by the Rubin Observatory, and how many discoveries could be made as a result. 'The number that I like to quote is, it took all of mankind about … 225 years to discover the first one and a half million asteroids. And in less than two years, Rubin is going to double that, and then go on and triple that a few years later,' Juric says. University of Washington astronomer Zeljko Ivezic, director of Rubin construction, joyfully raises his fist in the observatory's control room in Chile after seeing the first on-sky engineering data captured with the LSST Camera. (Credit: RubinObs / NOIRLab / SLAC / DOE / NSF / AURA / W. O'Mullane) Are there anomalies ahead? What about Planet 9, which astronomers have been trying to detect on the edge of the solar system for more than 10 years? 'If it's out there, we have something like a 70 or 80% chance to find it,' Juric says. 'Even if we don't directly notice it, my guess is in about three years or so, that's how much time it will take us to accumulate this data to sufficient precision [that] we'll confidently be able to say whether it is there and just really, really hard to find — or whether this whole thing has been just us astronomers hoping a little bit too much.' There's even a chance that the Rubin Observatory will pick up evidence of alien signals. Some astronomers, including UW's James Davenport, have speculated that Rubin could detect anomalous patterns that might be associated with extraterrestrial spaceships. 'The nice thing with this telescope is, we're going to collect so much data that we'll be able to go and look for these rare, unusual, anomalous signals. And who knows, maybe one of them is an E.T. shining a laser at us,' Juric says. 'It'll be fun.' The fun begins at 8 a.m. PT on Monday when the First Look webcast goes online. 'A couple of days after that, on the 26th, we're going to have an extended version of that for the general public on the UW Seattle campus, at Kane Hall,' Juric says. 'We really invite everyone here from Seattle or the Pacific Northwest, however far you want to drive, to come over and see that with us in person.' The in-person event on June 26 will start at 7 p.m. and feature an hourlong presentation about Rubin's first images. Speakers will include Juric as well as UW astronomer Zeljko Ivezic, director of Rubin construction; and Andrew Connolly, who was the DiRAC Institute's founding director and is now the director of UW's eScience Institute. Juric expects the fun, and the hard work of discovery, to continue for at least the next decade. 'Rubin should have the kind of impact that when we look at textbooks 10 years from now, almost every textbook has to change something because Rubin has added to that piece of human knowledge,' he says. 'It's a fairly high bar to meet, but it is a big, expensive telescope. That's what we're aiming for: It's got to be transformational.' Check out the Rubin Observatory website for more information about the project and for links to the First Look webcast on June 23, plus a list of watch parties. You can also learn more about the University of Washington's DiRAC Institute and find out how to register for the free UW presentation at 7 p.m. on June 26. My co-host for the Fiction Science podcast is Dominica Phetteplace, an award-winning writer who is a graduate of the Clarion West Writers Workshop and lives in San Francisco. To learn more about Phetteplace, visit her website, Fiction Science is included in FeedSpot's 100 Best Sci-Fi Podcasts. Check out the original version of this report on Cosmic Log to get Juric's thoughts on the connections between science fiction and the Rubin Observatory's future discoveries. Stay tuned for future episodes of the Fiction Science podcast via Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts and Podchaser. If you like Fiction Science, please rate the podcast and subscribe to get alerts for future episodes.
Bloomberg
4 hours ago
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Latin America's Security Crisis Is the Right's Stuff
Almost two weeks after an assassination attempt, Colombian senator Miguel Uribe Turbay remains in critical condition in a Bogota hospital. The attack against a charismatic 39-year-old presidential hopeful shocked Colombia, with thousands taking to the streets in solidarity, demanding peace and an end to the country's wave of violence. The cruel episode rekindled memories of the tragic Pablo Escobar years, when drug cartels and guerrillas ruled over life and death in Colombia in the 1980s and early 1990s. There are resemblances: The damaging combo of billion-dollar illegal businesses, ever-growing drug demand, brutal fights for markets and territory and ineffectual government security policies is destabilizing the Andean nation. Yet the feeling of insecurity isn't unique to Colombians: From Mexico to Ecuador and Peru, most of Latin America is going through a dark period where personal safety is uncertain and crime and corruption dominate public discussion. Worse, this is increasingly spilling into vicious political violence, as we saw with Uribe and the equally callous assassination of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio in 2023.
Gizmodo
a day ago
- Science
- Gizmodo
A Game-Changing Telescope Is About to Reveal Its First Images. Here's How to Watch
A state-of-the-art telescope nearly 25 years in the making will finally reveal its first images on Monday, June 23, and you can watch the event in realtime. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, perched atop a mountain in the Chilean Andes, boasts the largest digital camera ever built for astronomy. The telescope, overseen by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of Energy (DOE), will use this car-sized, 3.2-gigapixel camera to capture ultra-high-definition images and videos of the cosmos. During Monday's event, the NSF and DOE will display Rubin's first images to the public and screen one of the observatory's high-resolution time-lapse 'movies' of the visible sky. You can participate by tuning into a livestream or attending one of the in-person watch parties at museums, universities, and planetariums around the world. The observatory will begin livestreaming the event at 11 a.m. ET, and you can watch it right here. You can also use the interactive map on the observatory's website to find a watch party near you. More than two decades after the Rubin observatory was first conceived in a 'back-of-the-napkin' sketch, construction on this huge telescope is finally nearing completion. Monday's event marks the beginning of the observatory's ambitious science operations. Later this year, Rubin will kick off the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST)—an unprecedented decade-long survey of the night sky. This endeavor will produce 60 petabytes of data that will help scientists uncover the true natures of dark matter and dark energy, catalog the solar system, explore the changing sky, and understand the structure and function of our Milky Way galaxy. Rubin will use its 27.6-foot (8.4-meter) Simonyi Survey telescope—whose unique three-mirror design includes the largest convex mirror ever made—to observe the cosmos on an automated schedule. Each 30-second exposure will cover an area about 45 times the size of the full moon. The enormous LSST camera will capture wide-field images and stitch them together to create a complete view of the southern sky every three nights. Dedicated computer facilities will process Rubin's data in real time and issue global alerts of changes in the sky within minutes of detection. The observatory's findings will be funneled into a massive archive that will vastly increase the amount of data available to scientists. Researchers led by astronomer Meg Schwamb at Queen's University Belfast recently estimated that Rubin could triple the number of known near-Earth objects (NEOs) from about 38,000 to 127,000, detect ten times more trans-Neptunian objects than currently cataloged, and provide colorful, detailed observations of more than 5 million main-belt asteroids—up from roughly 1.4 million. Papers describing these predictions and the software Schwamb and her colleagues developed to make them, called Sorcha, are currently available on the preprint server arXiv. 'With this data, we'll be able to update the textbooks of solar system formation and vastly improve our ability to spot—and potentially deflect—the asteroids that could threaten Earth,' said Mario Juric, a member of the team and an astronomer at the University of Washington, in a university statement. In many ways, the Rubin observatory will carry on the legacy of its namesake, astronomer Vera Rubin. Her work helped prove the existence of dark matter, a paradigm-shifting finding for the field of astronomy. What's more, she published over 100 scientific papers, conducted groundbreaking research on spiral galaxies and galaxy rotation, and served as a trailblazer for women in science. Like Rubin the astronomer, the Rubin observatory will help usher the field into a whole new era of exploration and discovery. With its cutting-edge capabilities, Rubin's first images are sure to dazzle. Monday's event is only the beginning of this observatory's mission to map the cosmos in unprecedented detail, unlocking new insights into the secrets of the universe.
Forbes
a day ago
- Forbes
How To Spend Two Days In Cuzco
The gateway to Machu Picchu has its own magnificence. The Peruvian city of Cuzco is the typical starting and ending point for trips to Machu Picchu, as it has the closest airport to the world-renowned attraction. Yet there's plenty to do in this historic city itself that makes it a worthwhile stopover. You'll want to explore Cuzco slowly. It's set high in the Andes Mountains at a breath-sucking altitude of more than 11,000 feet. Fortunately, if you base yourself at the Forbes Travel Guide Recommended JW Marriott El Convento Cusco, a beautifully restored heritage property built around the 16th-century colonial Convent of San Agustín in the heart of the city, you can acclimate with a welcoming cup of mate de coca, an herbal tea used throughout the region to combat the effects of high altitude. Even better, the property pumps extra oxygen into each of its 153 guest rooms, making it a little easier to breathe. The hotel is a short walk from the Plaza de Armas — this main square is anchored by the grand Cusco Cathedral — and numerous museums, cafés and places to eat. Here's how to make the most of your time in that area and other parts of the city. JW Marriott El Convento Cusco is a beautifully restored heritage property. After a generous buffet breakfast at the luxury hotel, walk a few blocks through Cuzco's narrow streets to Qorikancha, where the ruins of a once-grand, sacred Incan temple are visible beneath the Church and Convent of Santo Domingo, which the Spanish constructed in the 1500s atop the Incan site. Several Inca-era rooms are visible on the edges of the colonial courtyard, while paintings throughout the building document both Incan and Spanish heritage. Take time to wander the gardens, too. Your next stop is Mercado San Pedro, Cuzco's central market. Browse the crowded aisles for everything from fresh fruit juices to spices to religious objects. Enjoy a leisurely lunch nearby at Chicha, the Cuzco outpost of celebrity chef Gastón Acurio, where Andean ingredients appear in innovative preparations. You might sample cuy (guinea pig), served in the style of Peking duck, atop a purple corn pancake with a 'hoisin' sauce made from rocoto peppers. Or try alpaca carpaccio, the rich meat brightened with a pesto-style sauce. Mercado San Pedro, Cuzco's central market, is filled with fresh flavors. In the afternoon, you can visit two museums that will help you prepare for your Machu Picchu visit. The Museo Inka has informative exhibits about Incan culture while Museo de Machu Picchu, which claims the world's largest collection of Machu Picchu artifacts, takes you through the history of the site's 'discovery' during American explorer Hiram Bingham's famous 1911 expedition that brought Machu Picchu into the world spotlight. Both museums have captions in English and Spanish. Make sure you're back at the hotel in time for a late-afternoon lesson on crafting a pisco sour, Peru's best-known cocktail, or a tour of the property, which takes you through its restoration, its history as a convent and its even earlier heritage, visiting pre-Inca ruins visible on the Marriott's lower level. For a light supper, take a short walk to Organika, where many of the ingredients in the salads, soups and plates, such as quinoa with grilled vegetables, are sourced from their own Sacred Valley gardens. The tiradito de trucha, made with local trout and paired with sweet potato chips, is an excellent choice. The hotel courtyard hosts demonstrations and photo opportunities. The next morning, after breakfast, stop into the hotel courtyard, where women from the Sacred Valley community of Chinchero offer demonstrations of traditional textile weaving techniques. You can also snap your photo with Panchita, the resident baby alpaca. Afterward, take an Uber or taxi — or book a guided tour — to Sacsayhuamán, an impressive archeological site built in the 1400s at an elevation of more than 12,000 feet. Allow at least a couple of hours to properly explore the multiple areas. Its walls and gates were constructed of massive stone blocks, fit together precisely without the use of mortar. From several vantage points around the site, you'll have expansive views across the entire Cuszo region. When you finish, walk down the stone staircases and through the narrow lanes lined with colorful street art to the San Blas neighborhood. At Green Point, you can lunch in the garden on plant-based dishes that might range from vegetarian quinoa soup to the 'Vegan Cusco Grill,' consisting of stuffed rocoto pepper, grilled oyster mushrooms, fresh greens and local potatoes in a creamy golden huancaína sauce, made from aji amarillo peppers. Be sure to try one of the fruity kombuchas or opt for the tangy, slightly fermented purple corn variety. Sacsayhuamán is an amazing archeological site built in the 1400s. Nearby, refresh with a coffee or a rich dark hot chocolate at Xapiri Ground, an art gallery/café close to the Plaza San Blas that shows work by contemporary artists from the Peruvian Amazon. Head back to the hotel for a rest or to lounge in the relaxation pool in the lower-level spa. As dusk approaches, visit Planetarium Cusco, a family-run star-gazing site, for an informative presentation that explores the Incas' view of the cosmos. You'll hear the Incan names for various constellations, learn some of the differences between the skies in the Northern and Southern hemispheres and, weather permitting, look through a telescope to spot celestial bodies. The planetarium offers presentations in English and provides transportation to and from the city center. When you return to town, a pisco sour in the JW Marriott's bar makes for a fitting finale to your two days of Cuszo adventures.
Forbes
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Wellcome Photography Prize Captures Topics In Science And Health
The Wellcome Photography Prize announced their shortlist of 25 photos that highlight topics in health and science. Besides artistically captured photographs that show human life around the world, the competition also includes a biomedical imaging category that features stunning photographs taken with high-tech scientific equipment. 'Cholesterol in the liver', 2022 By Steve Gschmeissner Courtesy of Wellcome Photography Prize 2025 This photography competition, which was last held in 2021, is organised by Wellcome, a charitable foundation that supports health research around the world. As a charity, Wellcome focuses on big topics like global health, mental health and the link between climate and health. These themes are reflected in the competition's submissions, which capture how issues that sometimes feel overly complex and abstract impact real people in their daily life. For example, in 'A Dream to Cure Water', Ciril Jazbec photographed a man in the Andes next to a small stream. The indigenous community that lives in this area of Peru has had to rely on purifying glacial runoff water with basic tools. It illustrates the impact that climate change has on people living in this region where 40% of glaciers have disappeared in the last half century. 'Dream to cure water', 2022 By Ciril Jazbec Courtesy of Wellcome Photography Prize 2025 Another shortlisted photo, by Pyaephyo Thetpaing, almost looks like a Renaissance painting, but it is an image of Ko Tun, a craftsman in Myanmar, who paints images and carves pots using his left foot after having lost his three other limbs. In a description of his photo, Thetpaing says 'Ko Tun's resilience is not just physical – it is mental and emotional. His story speaks to the importance of purpose and adaptability in overcoming life's challenges. By channelling his energy into his craft, he has found a way to heal, thrive, and inspire others.' Resilience artist', 2024 By Pyae Phyo Thet Paing Courtesy of Wellcome Photography Prize 2025 FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder This year's Wellcome Photography Prize is also the first year that the competition includes biomedical images. These images, often created with high tech scientific equipment, were originally part of the Wellcome Image Awards, but when the competition was rebranded as the Wellcome Photography Prize in 2019 this category was originally left out. Although there are other competitions that feature biomedical and scientific images, it's good to see this category back at the Wellcome award, because it shows such a unique view of the world through scientists' eyes. The images in this category often start out as research. Biologists have access to high-resolution microscopes and other tools that make minuscule details of cells or tissues visible. These images reveal new knowledge of the world, but they're often also very pretty. At the top of this article is an image of cholesterol in the liver, captured by Steve Gschmeissner using scanning electron microscopy. It captures the very tiny cholesterol crystals that can damage blood vessels or lead to strokes and heart attacks. Seeing the spikes in the image with such clarity really brings home the damage cholesterol can do. Another photo in this category (shown below) was made by researchers in Brazil who study the parasite that causes Chagas disease. This tropical disease, which is transferred by food or insects that contain the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, can cause a range of health problems. It's particularly prevalent in low-income populations in the Americas, and despite its devastating effects it has not been studied as much as some other diseases. Ingrid Augusto, Kildare Rocha de Miranda and Vânia da Silva Vieira are hoping to change that with their research into the disease. This image, which they took as part of their research, shows the inner structure of the parasite. 'Ice and Fire Chronics: The Chagas Disease Invader', 2020 By Ingrid Augusto, Kildare Rocha de ... More Miranda and Vania da Silva Vieira Courtesy of Wellcome Photography Prize 2025 These and other shortlisted competition photos will be on display at the Francis Crick Institute in London, UK, from July 17th to October 18th. One the day before the exhibit opens, the winners in each category will be announced at an awards ceremony. Besides the 25 Wellcome Photography prize finalists, this exhibit will also include a project by young people in Khayelitsha, South Africa. In 'Things We Left Unseen', they document daily life and issues around topics such as mental health or water access in their area of Cape Town, which has been significantly underserved compared to the rest of the city.
