Blogs

Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s stunningly detailed images will illuminate distant stellar streams and their past encounters with dark matter

Glittering threads of stars around the Milky Way may hold answers to one of our biggest questions about the Universe: what is dark matter? With images taken through six different color filters mounted to the largest camera ever built for astronomy and astrophysics, Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s upcoming Legacy Survey of Space and Time will reveal never-before-seen stellar streams around the Milky Way — and the telltale effects of their interactions with dark matter.

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory celebrates the completion of the largest camera ever built for astronomy and astrophysics

Vera C. Rubin Observatory is excited to announce that the team at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory has finished building the 3200-megapixel LSST Camera, which will soon be shipped to Chile and mounted on the telescope inside Rubin Observatory. This camera is the largest ever built for astronomy and astrophysics, and it took two decades of work to complete. The LSST camera is the size of a small car, and it will take images so large that you’d need hundreds of ultra-high-definition TVs — or about 1200 iPhone screens — to view just one at full size!

Rubin Observatory’s primary/tertiary mirror was successfully moved from a storage building into the observatory on March 7, 2024

Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s detailed, big-picture view of our Solar System and ability to quickly detect and track moving objects will provide a gold mine of data to benefit space mission planning and preparation

Vera C. Rubin Observatory will help scientists identify intriguing targets to prioritize for future space missions by detecting millions of new Solar System objects, and by revealing — in more detail than we’ve ever seen — the broader context in which these objects exist. Additionally, Rubin may alert scientists to the existence of objects like asteroids, comets, or visiting interstellar objects in time to determine their trajectories and prepare space missions to study them.

Teachers in Chile get hands-on experience using Rubin Observatory’s classroom investigations

Rubin Observatory team members joined scientists, students, and astronomy enthusiasts at a recent meeting in New Orleans
The American Astronomical Society (AAS) held its annual winter meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, on January 7-11, and Rubin Observatory sent an enthusiastic group of staff members and scientists to participate. Overall, the meeting drew more than 3000 in-person attendees, and the agenda was packed each day from morning until night with inspiring speakers, science presentations, press conferences, workshops, and more.

From all of us at Rubin Observatory, have a happy and healthy holiday season, and best wishes for the New Year!

Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s fast-moving telescope and huge digital camera will illuminate the faint glow of free-floating stars within galaxy clusters
December 4, 2023
Intracluster light, the collective glow of innumerable stars stripped from their home galaxies and left to wander vast intergalactic space, is incredibly faint and difficult to detect. Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s upcoming Legacy Survey of Space and Time will be the first astronomical survey to provide scientists with the data they need to detect intracluster light in thousands of galaxy clusters, unlocking clues to the evolutionary history of the Universe on large scales.