René Parlange
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parlange.bsky.social
René Parlange
@parlange.bsky.social
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CS PhD student | Machine Learning for Astrophysics | Legacy Survey of Space and Time [LSST] | Dark Energy and Strong Lensing Science Collaborations [DESC/SLSC]
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Reposted by René Parlange
vrubinobs.bsky.social
Yesterday we released our cosmic treasure chest...and now it's yours to explore! With ✨~10 million galaxies✨ in the image, there's plenty to find.

Pan, zoom, and hunt for gems in this treasure chest using Skyviewer - and be sure to share your favorites with us! 🔭🧪

➡️ skyviewer.app/explorer
A field of galaxies of many shapes, sizes and colors, as well as the bright multi-colored points of stars. At left is a large elliptical galaxy, smooth like a polished stone. At right lies a large spiral galaxy that is nearly a ring, with bright golden core. To its lower left is a smaller spiral with a barred core. At top and bottom, two bright stars shine brightly with multi-colored diffraction spikes emanating out. In the background, hundreds of galaxies are just smudges of various colors. A field of galaxies of many shapes, sizes and colors, as well as the bright multi-colored points of stars. At top left is a large galaxy that is smooth like a stone, with wisps like cotton candy spiral from left and right. In the background, hundreds of galaxies of many shapes are just smudges of various colors against the black of space. / A field of galaxies of many shapes, sizes and colors, as well as the bright multi-colored points of stars. At bottom left is an elegant two-armed galaxy, with arms extended like a dancer viewed from above. The bright points of three stars form a triangle at top center. In the background, hundreds of galaxies of many shapes are just smudges of various colors against the black of space. A field of galaxies of many shapes, sizes and colors, as well as the bright multi-colored points of stars. At top right is a large galaxy with two whirling spiral arms wrapping around like a hug. At bottom left, two smooth elliptical galaxies appear near each other, like champagne glasses in the midst of a cheers. A bright star above the pair has red, green, and blue diffraction spikes emanating out. In the background, hundreds of galaxies of many shapes are just smudges of various colors. A field of galaxies of many shapes, sizes and colors, as well as the bright multi-colored points of stars. At center is a spiral galaxy peppered with tight, knotted clumps of vivid blue, young stars. In the background, hundreds of galaxies of many shapes are just smudges of various colors against the black of space.
June 24, 2025 at 11:47 PM
Reposted by René Parlange
vrubinobs.bsky.social
Introducing...your sneak peek at the cosmos captured by NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory!

Can you guess these regions of sky?

This is just a small peek...join us at 11am US EDT for your full First Look at how Rubin will #CaptureTheCosmos! 🔭🧪

#RubinFirstLook
ls.st/rubin-first-look-livestream
A sprawling, textured field of galaxies scattered across the deep black of space. It is filled with the delicate smudges and glowing cores of galaxies of many shapes, sizes and colors, as well as the bright multi-colored points of stars. The image focuses on a collection of interacting galaxies connected by delicate streams of stars. At top center lies a large elliptical galaxy that is dense and smooth, like a polished stone glowing with golden light. Like delicate spider silk or stretched taffy, these stellar bridges link the large elliptical to the few larger galaxies beneath, evidence of past collisions. All throughout the image, thousands of galaxies gather in clusters or are spread throughout, like glittering gems strewn on a table. Some are sharp-edged and spiral, like coiled ribbons; others round and diffuse, like polished pebbles. Still others are just smudges of various colors against the black of space. The background is peppered with pinpoint stars in reds, yellows, and blues, crisp against the velvet black. A cosmic tapestry of glowing tan and pink gas clouds with dark dust lanes. In the upper right, the Trifid Nebula resembles a small flower in space. Its soft, pinkish gas petals are surrounded by blue gas, and streaked with dark, finger-like veins of dust that divide it into three parts. It radiates a gentle, misty glow, diffuse and soft like the warmth of breath on a cold hand. To the lower left, the much larger Lagoon Nebula stretches wide like a churning sea of magenta gas, with bright blue, knotted clumps sprinkled throughout where new stars are born. Both nebulae are embedded in a soft tan backdrop of gas that is brighter on the left than on the right, etched with dark tendrils of dust and sprinkled with the pinpricks of millions of stars. A sprawling, textured field of galaxies scattered across the deep black of space. It is filled with the delicate smudges and glowing cores of galaxies of many shapes, sizes and colors, as well as the bright multi-colored points of stars. To the lower left is a region filled with the hundreds of golden glittering gems of a distant galaxy cluster. In the foreground, below and right of center, two blue spiral galaxies look like eyes beneath the entangled mass of a triple galaxy merger in the upper right. A few bright blue points of foreground stars pierce the glittering tapestry. All throughout the image, thousands of galaxies gather in clusters or are spread throughout, like glittering gems strewn on a table. Some are sharp-edged and spiral, like coiled ribbons; others round and diffuse, like polished pebbles. Still others are just smudges of various colors against the black of space. The background is peppered with pinpoint stars in reds, yellows, and blues, crisp against the velvet black.
June 23, 2025 at 4:06 AM
Reposted by René Parlange
vrubinobs.bsky.social
Asteroids & dark matter & supernovae, oh my!

NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time will make the ultimate all-purpose data set. Rubin will share catalogs of BILLIONS of objects, including positions, shapes, and brightness. 🔭🧪

Read more: rubinobservatory.org/explore/scie...
Creative composition of real photo and illustration showing Rubin Observatory and its science goals. A photo of Rubin Observatory dominates the bottom half of the image, with long white service building pointing left and angular silver dome sticking up. The top half of the image, where the sky would be, instead has an illustration in five panels. From left to right the panels hold simple illustrations of: the Solar System, a flared cone shape representing the expanding Universe, dark matter, an exploding star, and the glowing band of stars in the Milky Way.
May 27, 2025 at 5:10 PM
Reposted by René Parlange
vrubinobs.bsky.social
Rubin #CommissioningNotes ✍️: Winter is coming 🥶

It was a chilly week this week at Cerro Pachón in Chile. But our team kept up their commissioning and calibration work, continuing to bring NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory up to full operation as a cohesive system. 🔭🧪

🧵
Rubin Observatory's huge 8.4-meter telescope points at the in-dome calibration screen. On the right, and tilted left nearly to horizontal, the telescope is a huge, teal steel structure with a top and middle ring supported by thick beams connected to the telescope base. On the left, the calibration screen is a large white donut shape slightly wider than the top end of the telescope. Credit: RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/DOE/NSF/AURA/W. O'Mullane
May 24, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Reposted by René Parlange
vrubinobs.bsky.social
What goes on in space when we're not paying attention? 🤨 The NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) is going to find out! Here's what you need to know about LSST before Rubin starts to #CaptureTheCosmos 🔭 🧪

🧵
Rubin Observatory beneath a deep blue night sky. The observatory is a boot-shaped building, with long white service building pointing left and angular silver dome pointing up. The observatory is illuminated by the Moon, making it appear almost as bright as in daytime.
May 13, 2025 at 8:59 PM
Reposted by René Parlange
vrubinobs.bsky.social
3200 megapixels. A new image every 40 seconds. Hundreds of petabytes of data. And a team that made it real.

@NSF–@DOEscience Rubin Observatory is nearly ready to #CaptureTheCosmos. But the idea for it began with a puzzling discovery 30 years ago... 🔭🧪

🔗: rubinobservatory.org/news/sharpen...
Creative illustration in shades of blue and teal of the scientific topics Rubin Observatory will advance, portrayed as individual photos being developed in a film photography dark room. Hanging to develop are four "photos" portraying from left to right: 1) an expanding Universe due to dark energy, 2) distant galaxies, 3) a cluster of galaxies, and 4) the sweeping, gravitationally distorted arcs of lensed galaxies. A fifth "photo" of asteroids is still developing in a pan on the table.
April 23, 2025 at 6:49 PM
Reposted by René Parlange
ehtelescope.bsky.social
This snowy site is the 12-meter telescope at Kitt Peak, Arizona❄️.

While beautiful, snow and rain cause water vapor which absorbs the electromagnetic waves that radio telescopes capture. As a result, radio telescopes are built at high altitudes - Kitt Peak soars 1900 meters up!
April 5, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Reposted by René Parlange
karenlmasters.bsky.social
I was reminded of @galaxyzoo.org website for writing with galaxies shaped like letters of the alphabet today, and the first word that popped into my head was "resist". 🔭👩‍🔬🧪 (mygalaxies.co.uk)
The word "resist!" written in font made up of real images of galaxies.
February 19, 2025 at 9:54 PM
Reposted by René Parlange
jeffdean.bsky.social
Training our most capable Gemini models relies heavily on our JAX software stack+Google's TPU hardware platforms.

If you want to learn more, see this awesome book "How to Scale Your Model":

jax-ml.github.io/scaling-book/

Put together by several of my Google DeepMind colleagues listed below 🎉.
jacobaustin123.bsky.social jacobaustin123.bsky.social @jacobaustin123.bsky.social · Feb 4
Making LLMs run efficiently can feel scary, but scaling isn’t magic, it’s math! We wanted to demystify the “systems view” of LLMs and wrote a little textbook called “How To Scale Your Model” which we’re releasing today. 1/n
February 4, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Reposted by René Parlange
vrubinobs.bsky.social
When you turn it on and it works spectacularly!

The Rubin team has successfully completed the first on-sky engineering tests using the 144-Mpx engineering camera. Up next: installing the largest digital camera in the world, LSST Camera! 🔭🧪

rubinobservatory.org/news/rubin-completes-comcam-tests
January 14, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Reposted by René Parlange
astrokatie.com
To me the cool thing about this image is that the sprinkling of blue stars are in the foreground, some 5 million light years away, while all those gorgeous colorful swirly galaxies are almost unimaginably more distant, out in the far depths of the cosmos. More info: www.stsci.edu/contents/med...
aussiastronomer.bsky.social Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · Jan 17
Oh come ON now. This new JWST image is just ASTOUNDING.

I feel like I’m falling looking into it, and that I would fall forever, and that I would enjoy it.

NASA, ESA, CSA, K. McQuinn (STScI), J. DePasquale (STScI)
False colour JWST NIRCam image of a nearby star forming region in front of a deep back ground of colorful galaxies. NASA, ESA, CSA, K. McQuinn (STScI), J. DePasquale (STScI)
January 18, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Reposted by René Parlange
thephysicsjournal.substack.com
Arp 142, a group of interacting galaxies in the Hydra constellation
January 17, 2025 at 11:52 PM
Reposted by René Parlange
explorecosmos.bsky.social
The #JWST captured an image of the Leo P dwarf galaxy, about 5 million light-years away in Leo. Scientists studied 15,000 stars in Leo P, revealing its star formation history: an initial burst, a multi-billion-year pause, and ongoing star formation. 1/ #Science

👉 esawebb.org/images/LeoP/
January 16, 2025 at 8:14 PM
Reposted by René Parlange
hbhammel.bsky.social
“Rubin Observatory will be Earth’s dash-cam video of the sky” - Yusra AlSayyad, on the amazing unexpected and unpredicted discoveries that will be made by the NSF-DOE @vrubinobs.bsky.social 🔭
January 16, 2025 at 6:22 PM
Reposted by René Parlange
lsstuk.bsky.social
Milestone alert! Images from the @vrubinobs.bsky.social engineering test camera (aka ComCam) have brought us one step closer to seeing the Universe in new ways. Find out more: rubinobservatory.org/news/rubin-c... 🔭
Testing, Testing! NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory Completes Comprehensive System Tests With Flying Colors | Rubin Observatory
rubinobservatory.org
January 14, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Reposted by René Parlange
apolitosb.bsky.social
🔭
eso.org ESO @eso.org · Jan 9
#TourESO If you are looking for weekend inspiration, how about a virtual tour through our Paranal Observatory?

🗓️ 11 January
⏰ 15:00 CET / 11:00 CLT
🔗 Streamed at https://www.youtube.com/user/ESOobservatory/

📷 ESO
January 9, 2025 at 10:39 AM
Reposted by René Parlange
vrubinobs.bsky.social
👋 Time for a reintroduction!

NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory is nearing the end of construction on Cerro Pachón in Chile, getting ready for its quest to #CaptureTheCosmos with first light expected later this year. 🔭🧪
January 6, 2025 at 10:12 PM
Reposted by René Parlange
kevinmgill.bsky.social
Saturn in near-infrared wavelengths of light from Cassini. These filters were designed to penetrate through methane hazes into lower cloud decks revealing complex bands, jet streams, and thick layers of clouds.
Saturn in near-infrared false color. NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/CICLOPS/Kevin M. Gill Saturn in near-infrared false color. The rings are backlit and dark. NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/CICLOPS/Kevin M. Gill Saturn in near-infrared false color. The rings are viewed edge-on and appear as a thin line. Thick billowing clouds are visible under darker jet streams. NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/CICLOPS/Kevin M. Gill Saturn in near-infrared false color. The rings are back-lit and dark. NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/CICLOPS/Kevin M. Gill
January 4, 2025 at 10:50 PM
Reposted by René Parlange
xkcd.com
Origami Black Hole xkcd.com/3033
January 3, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Reposted by René Parlange
vrubinobs.bsky.social
New year, fresh starts. And Rubin will start something truly epic in 2025 🌌

It's officially the year Rubin will finish construction! This is the year we will begin our epic decade-long quest to #CaptureTheCosmos 🎥

🔭🧪

📷: H. Stockebrand
Rubin Observatory beneath a glowing night sky showing the band of the Milky Way, Venus, and a comet. The observatory is a boot-shaped structure at center, with long white service building and vertical silver dome. The Milky Way stretches horizontally overhead as a cotton-candy-like band of stars and dust. Venus shines brightly as a point to the left, and the thin, faint streak of a comet appears above the observatory
January 1, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Reposted by René Parlange
mpoessel.de
I took a few more frames for my Pleiades mosaic a few nights ago, and this is the current state of that project. In this version, I have a bit more context around the Pleiades, in addition to the stars and their dust nebula themselves. 1/ 🧪🔭
Large image with the Pleiades in the middle. There are blueish and grayish clouds around some of the stars.
December 29, 2024 at 6:38 PM
Reposted by René Parlange
astronomy-gallery.bsky.social
NASA Hubble Space Telescope on Flickr (Jan 11, 2019)

Abell 1689, a galaxy cluster 2.2 billion light-years away, demonstrates gravitational lensing, magnifying the light from galaxies behind it. #Hubble #NASA

flic.kr/p/2cLkd8i
Image of galaxy cluster Abell 1689, showing gravitational lensing effects with arcs of distant galaxies. Credit: NASA; ESA; L. Bradley (Johns Hopkins University); R. Bouwens (University of California, Santa Cruz); H. Ford (Johns Hopkins University); G. Illingworth (University of California, Santa Cruz)
December 28, 2024 at 5:01 AM
Reposted by René Parlange
vrubinobs.bsky.social
🤳 The team took a group selfie using the engineering camera — the first time light went through the complete telescope and hit a camera detector!

🔭 The team did important testing and troubleshooting with the engineering camera

🧪🔭
December 27, 2024 at 3:00 PM
Reposted by René Parlange
vrubinobs.bsky.social
What a year! 🥳

We had some big moves and even bigger accomplishments this year at Rubin Observatory as we get ever closer to the end of construction! 🧪🔭

Check out our incredible year in review 👇 🧵
December 27, 2024 at 3:00 PM