Patricia Daukantas, Science Writer/Editor

12/04/2025

Congratulations!

NASA has completed the construction of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope!

On November 25, 2025, technicians joined the inner and outer portions of the observatory in the largest clean room at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

After final testing, Roman will move to the launch site at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for launch preparations in summer 2026. Roman is slated to launch by May 2027, but the team is on track for launch as early as fall 2026: https://go.nasa.gov/48EqnE8

12/04/2025

So exciting! I've watched other clean-room projects at Goddard in the past. Now I REALLY hope the telescope stays funded so it can launch!

12/01/2025

Sir Isaac Newton, physicist. Sir Brian May, astrophysicist. Anyone else see the resemblance?

12/01/2025

Another fascinating image from Optica and OPN.

Image of the Week: Optical Mosaic

Oil droplets dispersed in water create a beautiful natural mosaic. Each droplet acts as a tiny lens, bending and shaping the light into unique patterns. A green digital screen placed beneath the setup provided the luminous background, allowing light to scatter, refract and transmit through the spherical surfaces.

[OPN 2025 Photo Contest Editors’ Choice]

Sritam Sethy Kumar, M. Pharm Student, Balasore, Odisha, India

Read more here: http://bit.ly/3Uj2QCf

12/01/2025

I love this image for its stunning simplicity.

Image of the Week: Artistic Glassware

Through creative use of artificial light, three water-filled glasses placed on a reflective surface against a dual-color background beautifully demonstrate optical principles like reflection and refraction—transforming simple objects into an artistic interplay of light, color and geometry.

[2025 ]

Kishore Das, Kolkata, India

Read more here: http://bit.ly/3Uj2QCf

11/05/2025

OPN's November issue's cover feature explores the transition from copper to optics in data centers as they're being pushed to their limits to accommodate growing AI infrastructure.

Check out the story to see how this is transforming photonic integrated circuit production: https://bit.ly/3JGC9W0

11/05/2025

A team led by JILA Fellows and University of Colorado Boulder professors Margaret Murnane and Henry Kapteyn has made a significant advance to make soft X-rays more accessible: they have developed an ultrastable, scalable and repeatable method for generating soft X-ray beams using a custom-built 3-micron ultrafast laser that is focused into an anti-resonant hollow-core fiber.
https://jila.colorado.edu/news-events/articles/resonant-frequencies-playing-edge-light-3-micron-baton

11/05/2025

10/24/2025

The papyrus scroll is one of hundreds that were carbonized in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 C.E.

10/24/2025

10/24/2025

Researchers led by JILA and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Fellow Jun Ye have shown how to make atomic clocks even more precise by leveraging entanglement. This allows the atoms to “tick” more in sync, reducing the randomness that usually limits how precisely we can measure time.

Their results show that it’s possible to go beyond what’s known as the Standard Quantum Limit (SQL)—a fundamental barrier in quantum measurements—by using a technique called spin squeezing. This work could help improve everything from GPS systems to tests of gravity and the nature of the universe.

https://jila.colorado.edu/news-events/articles/entangled-time-pushing-atomic-clocks-beyond-standard-quantum-limit

08/19/2025

Happy Birthday, Cerro Tololo!

🎂 60 years and still looking up!
Since 1965, Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) has been exploring the Universe from its mountaintop home near the Andes. In this photo, the telescopes glow under the Milky Way - like candles on a birthday cake - with Venus, Mars, and Saturn joining the party. 🌌✨

Here’s to many more years of discovery from our corner of Chile. ❤️🔭

From left to right:
🔭 US Naval Observatory Deep South Telescope
🌟 DIMM1 Seeing Monitor
🔭 UBC Southern Observatory
🛡️ Planetary Defense 1.0-meter Telescope
📷 Curtis Schmidt Telescope
🌌 Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope
🔭 SMARTS-GSU 1.5-meter Telescope

📷: CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Horálek