Astronomers are about to begin time-lapse photography of the night sky using the largest digital camera ever constructed. Designed to detect any new or moving point of light as well as the structure of the universe, the new Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile will take so many images so quickly that it will effectively create an astronomical movie that allows scientists to see the universe in real time.
The Rubin Observatory, formerly known as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, should provide astronomers with the data they need to unravel some of the deepest mysteries of how the universe works. The observatory is named after the pioneering astronomer Věra C. Rubinová, who found evidence for it dark matterthe mysterious substance that binds galaxies together.
The observatory is ready to perform a 10-year time period of space. Here’s everything you need to know about the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and its pioneering mission.
What is the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and why is it unique?
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory will be like no other telescope on Earth. The extremely wide-field telescope will launch the ten-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time, a hugely ambitious project that will image the entire Southern Hemisphere night sky every three to four nights.
While many modern telescopes are built for close-ups, the observatory’s Simonyi Survey Telescope, which boasts a 27.6-foot-wide (8.4-meter) primary mirror, has a field of view about the diameter of seven full moons.
The Rubin Observatory has been under construction since 2014 at an altitude of 8,900 feet (2,700 m) atop Cerro Pachón in Chile.
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What kinds of instruments will the Rubin Observatory use?
The Rubin Observatory will be equipped with the world’s largest camera dedicated to astronomy and astrophysics. The $168 LSSTCam has a 2-foot (0.6m) focal plane with 189 individual 16-megapixel charge-coupled device sensors, resulting in a remarkable 3,200-megapixel image. It also has six of the largest optical filters ever made to see the universe in different wavelengths of light official site of the telescope.
Equally impressive is the mount, which rotates into a new position in just five seconds, allowing the camera to capture a high-resolution image every 39 seconds. Fiber optics transfer each image to a supercomputer in California within two minutes for analysis. If there is anything new or changed in the image compared to the reference image, astronomers will be alerted.
What will the Rubin Observatory be looking for?
The telescope data will be used for two purposes. The first is planetary defense. Its images are expected to detect about 90% of all potentially hazardous asteroids, which are defined as asteroids larger than 640 feet (140 m) in diameter that could travel within 4.65 million miles (7.48 million kilometers) from Earth. This includes the dangerous and elusive asteroids that are normally hidden in the sunlight.
In addition, the observatory should identify never-before-seen interstellar comets, free-floating stars and rogue planets. One of the largest solar system objects it could reveal is Planet Nine, a hypothetical world that may be lurking in the outer reaches of our solar system. Experts say that within a year of commissioning, the giant telescope could have produced enough data to find the elusive world – or rule it out forever.
But in the long run, it will also reveal many thousands – or even millions – of supernovae, as well as galaxies and their structures, which could prove crucial to our understanding dark energy and dark matter.
When will the Rubin Observatory start operations?
LSSTCam arrived at Cerro Pachón in May 2024, but science operations are still a long way off. They are expected to begin in late 2025 or early 2026, though alignment and testing images will likely be released in spring 2025, according to the observatory’s website.