It's Official: Vera Rubin Observatory Named to Honor Dark Matter Scientist
It's Official: Vera Rubin Observatory Named to Honor Dark Matter Scientist
By Meghan Bartels - Space.com Senior Writer 3 hours ago
HONOLULU — A U.S. facility designed in part to solve the mysteries of dark matter now officially carries the name of Vera Rubin, the scientist who concluded that the elusive substance must exist.
That announcement came Monday (Jan. 6) here, at the 235th meeting of the American Astronomical Society, during an open house devoted to what to date has been called the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). However, the name change had been in the works since the summer, when Congress began discussing a bill that would create the new moniker. That bill became a law on Dec. 20.
"We're here today to focus on the major renaming of the facility after a pioneering astronomer, that is intimately tied to one of the key focus science areas for this project," Ralph Gaume, Director of the National Science Foundation's Division of Astronomical Sciences, said during the event. "I'm pleased, very pleased, beyond how much you all know and may recognize, to today officially rename the LSST observatory as the Vera C. Rubin Observatory."
Gaume's comments were met by applause from the gathered astronomers. Observatory director Steve Kahn and other team members soon donned T-shirts sporting the new name.
More:
https://www.livescience.com/lsst-named-vera-rubin-observatory.html
