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2w ago

Vera C. Rubin Observatory Captures First Public Images as 10-Year Sky Survey Launches

SLAC’s Menlo Park processing center will deliver alerts on changing celestial objects within two minutes of capture

The Trifid and Lagoon Nebulae, located more than 4,000 light-years away, as seen by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory.  
Image
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s view of the southern region of the Virgo Cluster.
Vera C. Rubin Observatory construction.

Overview

  • On June 23, the observatory revealed its first public images capturing nearly 10 million galaxies across a field 45 times the size of the full Moon
  • The initial data exposed over 2,000 previously unknown asteroids and detailed structures in the Virgo cluster about 54 million light years away
  • Its 3,200-megapixel camera will sweep the entire southern sky every three nights, generating roughly 20 terabytes of data each night
  • Captured imagery is streamed to SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory for immediate processing, with observed changes released within two minutes
  • Over its decade-long Legacy Survey of Space and Time, the observatory aims to map some 20 billion galaxies to probe dark matter, dark energy and transient cosmic events