We do not work alone, solitary observers of the night. We learn as communities, as teams

In 1841, the Jesuit physicist James Curley established an observatory at Georgetown College (now University) in Washington DC, which last week held a “185 Years of Jesuit Astronomy” event.

The Vera Rubin Observatory in northern Chile is about to begin its 10 year programme to image, once every three nights, the entire night sky. Its goal is to detect short-term changes – galaxies that suddenly brighten with a supernova, faint asteroids in motion, hints of events that might shed light on the nature of Dark Energy. Its 8.4-metre mirror focuses light on the largest digital camera ever made, producing terabytes of data every night; a powerful computer system sorts through this haystack for interesting needles.

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