Astronomers are about to capture a time-lapse of the night sky using the largest digital camera ever built. Chile’s new Vera C. Rubin Observatory, designed to reveal every new or moving point of light and the structure of the universe, will take so many pictures, so quickly, that it will effectively produce an astronomical movie that will allow scientists to explore the universe in real time to see.
The Rubin Observatory, formerly known as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, is expected to give astronomers the data they need to unravel some of the deepest mysteries about how the universe works. The observatory is named after pioneering astronomer Vera C. Rubin, who found evidence for it dark matterthe mysterious substance that binds galaxies together.
The observatory will conduct a ten-year time-lapse of the universe. Here’s everything you need to know about the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and its groundbreaking 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 initiate the decade-long Legacy Survey of Space and Time, a hugely ambitious project to image the entire night sky of the Southern Hemisphere every three to four nights.
While many modern telescopes are built for close-ups, the observatory’s Simonyi Survey Telescope, which features an 8.4-meter-wide primary mirror, has a field of view roughly equal to the diameter of seven full moons.
The Rubin Observatory has been under construction since 2014 at an altitude of 2,700 meters on the summit of Cerro Pachón in Chile.
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What types of instruments will the Rubin Observatory use?
The Rubin Observatory is about to be equipped with the world’s largest camera for astronomy and astrophysics. The $168 LSSTCam has a 0.6m wide 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 produced to see the universe in different wavelengths of light, according to the official website of the telescope.
Just as impressive is the mount, which can rotate to a new position in just five seconds, allowing the camera to take a high-resolution shot every 39 seconds. Fiber optic will transmit each image to one supercomputer in California within two minutes for analysis. If there is anything new or changed in the image compared to a reference image, astronomers are alerted.
What will the Rubin Observatory look for?
The data from the telescope will be used for two purposes. The first is planetary defense. The images are expected to reveal about 90% of all potentially hazardous asteroids, which are defined as those with a diameter greater than 140 meters that could come within 7.48 million kilometers of Earth. This includes dangerous and elusive asteroids that are normally hidden in the sun’s glare.
In addition, the observatory must identify previously unseen 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 lurk at the outer limits of our solar system. Experts say that within a year of being put into service, the giant telescope may have produced enough data to find the elusive world – or rule it out forever.
In the longer term, however, 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 of dark energy and dark matter.
When will the Rubin Observatory become operational?
LSSTCam arrived at Cerro Pachón in May 2024, but scientific operations are still far away. They are expected to launch in late 2025 or early 2026, although alignment and test images will likely be released in spring 2025, according to the observatory’s website.