Zwicky Transient Facility Website Loading... ZTF intranet Team members can sign in to the Twiki intranet To ZTF Twiki Close Menu IRSA Login Observatory Status Github About What is ZTF? Palomar Observatory Partners Organization Team NSF MSIP Science Science Themes AGNs & TDEs Cosmology with Supernovae Galactic & M31 science Machine Learning Multimessenger Astrophysics Physics of Supernovae and Relativistic Explosions Solar System Bodies More ZTF Experiments Publications Science Vlog ZTF Science Meetings ZTF Newsletter Survey & Data Telescopes Palomar P48 (ZTF observing system) Palomar P60 (SEDM Spectrograph) Palomar P200 (NGPS Spectrograph) Survey & Data Releases Public Releases Alert Stream ZTF Experiments LIONS Survey Bright Transient Survey Data Access & Tools Babamul Broker Forced Photometry Image Access Catalog query Fritz Education ZTF Summer School For Undergraduates For High School Students News News Science Vlog ZTF Newsletter Public Outreach Zooniverse Mobile App Sonification Project Multimedia Systematically Exploring the Dynamic Universe What is ZTF? The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) is an international consortium led by Caltech that operates cutting-edge observational facilities at the Palomar observatory to systematically study the dynamic optical night sky. Using an extremely wide-field of view camera, ZTF has been continuously scanning the entire Northern sky every two days since 2018. The resulting large area survey has enabled a leap in our understanding of the transient universe and helped prepare the community for the arrival of the Vera Rubin Observatory. In the Rubin era, ZTF will strategically observe overlapping areas to provide unique multi-survey capabilities for the studies of fast and rare objects that would remain undetected in any of the single surveys. ZTF is funded in equal part by the US National Science Foundation and its partners. Extreme Field of View ZTF employs a custom-built mosaic CCD camera which utilizes the entire focal plane (~ 47 sq deg) of the P48 telescope at Palomar, providing the largest instantaneous field-of-view of any camera on a telescope of aperture greater than half a meter. Read More Unique survey ZTF scans the northern sky at high cadance (~2 days) to produce a comprehensive, multi-filter survey. ZTF delivers bi-monthly public data releases of high quality and reliable data products to enable time-domain science. Read More Machine Learning & Dedicated Followup Data pipelines incorporate machine learning algorithms to sieve through billions of individual astrophysical sources and send candidates for dedicated and automated followup and classification. Read More Powerful collaboration The ZTF partnership has formed a strong, scientifically diverse collaboration with partners from the USA, Europe and Asia. This large multidisciplinary team also offers access to an extensive network of followup resources. Read More For Astronomers Featured Video Discovered so far... 12381 Classified Supernovae 80 Tidal Disruption Events 232 Near Earth Asteroids & Comets 50 Ultra-compact Binaries Science Themes Science activities in ZTF are organized and managed by seven science working groups (SWG). These are: AGNs & TDEs Cosmology with Supernovae and Gravitational Lensing Galactic and M31 Science Machine Learning Multimessenger Astrophysics Physics of Supernovae and Relativistic Explosions Solar System Bodies Science Vlog Cosmic Newsflash is the ZTF newsletter for the large time-domain astronomy community that uses ZTF public data. Timed with our public data releases, it includes practical information about the release, a summary of science highlights from the ZTF partnership, updates from operations, a spotlight on team members and more. See Latest Issue Subscribe News & Announcements July 28, 2026 | Category: Press Release ZTF spots a ZTF spots a stealthy black hole wandering at the edge of a galaxy A team of international astronomers, expert hunters of black holes started searching for black holes not only at the center of galaxies where they are typically detected but anywhere in the patch of night sky scanned by the ZTF. Just three months later, they stumbled upon one such black hole lurking on the edge of a galaxy. It’s the first time scientists have detected a dormant black hole so far away from a galaxy’s center. Read More April 16, 2026 | Category: News ZTF welcomes a new European partner A collaboration between the German Center for Astrophysics in Gorlitz, the Leibniz-Institute for Astrophysics, Potsdam and the German Electron Synchrotron DESY is officially joining the Zwicky Transient Facility partnership, expanding our scientific collaborative network in Europe and growing our team of world- class researchers and students. Read More March 18, 2026 | Category: News How Two Dim Stars Came Together to Shine Brightly Zwicky Transient Facility discovers a brown dwarf actively funneling matter from its companion. A new finding led by researchers discovered in archival observations captured by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) shows how these dim bulbs can join together to shine brightly. Read More More News Outreach Our global team and varied science provide excellent opportunities for outreach. In ZTF phase II, we continue to run our ZTF summer schools designed to provide PhD student with hands-on skills in data processing and analysis of ZTF data. Partners in our global network welcome undergraduate students every summer under the flagship of various summer research programs. Students conduct not only a wide variety of research reflected by the breadth of science activities in ZTF, but they also learn how to be part of international collaborations. At Caltech, we also participate in various outreach activities focusing on high school students. We also engage in public outreach via projects on Zooniverse. By the end of ZTF phase II we plan to launch a new web tool/mobile app designed to let the general public learn more about the dynamic sky. ZTF summer school ZARTH mobile game Student Opportunities ZTF is a public-private partnership, with equal support from the ZTF Partnership and from the U.S. National Science Foundation award #2407588. The ZTF partnership is a consortium of the following universities and institutions: Caltech, USA; University of Maryland, College Park, USA; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, USA; Drexel University, USA; Cornell University, USA; University of California, Berkeley; University of North Caroline Chapel Hill, USA; Institute of Science and Technology, Austria; IPAC/Caltech, USA; National Central University, Taiwan; The German Center for Astrophysics (DZA), Germany Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Developed and maintained by Iva Kostadinova. Based on Yamen theme.