Revolutionary Rubin Observatory Debuts With First Images Taken By World’s Largest Camera
The NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory sits atop a Chilean mountain named Cerro Pachón, at 8,684 feet above sea level. (Credit: RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/NSF/DOE/AURA/A. Pizarro D.)
On June 23, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile released its first images, marking a significant milestone for the $810 million project. This event coincides with celebrations worldwide, including many at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), whose researchers have been instrumental in the observatory's development from its inception.
The Rubin Observatory First Look event culminates over a decade of work by hundreds of scientists and engineers. Its mission is to create an unprecedented astronomical dataset for studying the universe, making the information widely accessible to a diverse scientific community, and engaging the public in cosmic exploration.
The pioneering American astronomer Vera C. Rubin (1928-2016). (Credit: Carnegie Institution for Science)
The observatory's 8.4-meter Simonyi Survey Telescope features the LSST Camera, the largest digital camera ever built. This 3,200-megapixel camera, recently installed, will produce massive amounts of data for the ambitious Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). Starting in late 2025, the LSST will repeatedly scan the southern night sky for ten years, creating an ultra-high-definition time-lapse of the universe. This "movie" will reveal asteroids, comets, pulsating stars, and supernovae, as well as billions of distant galaxies and faint, nearby objects.
Check out the stunning photos here:
