The Vera C. Rubin Observatory has just dropped its very first images. Expected to revolutionize our understanding of the Universe, the new eye on the sky hasn’t disappointed.
For 10 hours, the US National Science Foundation and Department of Energy facility stared deep into the cosmos, using its powerful camera to record in near-ultraviolet, optical, and near-infrared wavelengths. The result is a tantalizing and exciting set of observations that bode well for the years to come.
“NSF-DOE Rubin Observatory will capture more information about our Universe than all optical telescopes throughout history combined,” says Brian Stone, acting director of the NSF. “Through this remarkable scientific facility, we will explore many cosmic mysteries, including the dark matter and dark energy that permeate the Universe.”
Rubin’s first mission is a 10-year survey of the southern sky called the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). Every few days, it will observe the entire sky, recording each section around 800 times using the telescope’s 3,200-megapixel camera (the largest in the world) to effectively compile an unprecedented 10-year timelapse of the Universe.
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The mission is designed to capture anything that moves, flashes, or pulses – a remit that includes asteroids, comets, supernovae, and pulsars; from taking an asteroid inventory of the Solar System to cataloguing exploding stars billions of light-years away.
In its first images, Rubin demonstrates some of that range, recording an extremely detailed, massive image of the Milky Way Trifid and Lagoon nebulae, two dense molecular clouds bubbling with hidden star formation. In 7.2 hours, the telescope took 678 individual images for a final mosaic coming in at just under 5 gigapixels.
You should go have a play with the interactive zoomable image – it’s a delight.
In another image, the observatory showcases its ability to zoom in on a patch of sky, revealing around 10 million galaxies in a tightly focused field of view around the Virgo cluster. There’s a zoomable version here.
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Finally, the Rubin team revealed the Solar System asteroids the telescope was able to observe – including a whopping 2,104 orbiting bits of rock we’ve never seen before, in just over 10 hours of observations.
Annually, about 20,000 new asteroids are discovered by all other ground-based telescopes combined – Rubin looks to blow them out of the water.
None of the asteroids discovered by Rubin pose a hazard to Earth, but the discoveries show what a powerful tool the observatory will be in Earth defense against hazardous space rocks.
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“Rubin Observatory is the first of its kind: its mirror design, camera size and sensitivity, telescope speed, and computing infrastructure are each in an entirely new category,” the NSF and DOE say.
“With Rubin data we will all understand our Universe better, chronicle its evolution, delve into the mysteries of dark energy and dark matter, and reveal answers to questions we have yet to imagine.”
Excelsior.
