U.S.-funded observatory releases images of changing universe

An observatory in Chile funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy released images Monday showing cosmic phenomena captured at a scale scientists are calling unprecedented. Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s facility captured vivid images of millions of galaxies and Milky Way stars during about 10 hours of test observations, according to a Monday statement. Rubin’s 8.4-meter telescope boasts the largest digital camera ever built and is mounted at one of the best galactic observation spots in the world to feed data to a powerful processing system, the observatory explained. The 10-hour scan was years in the making, a precursor for Rubin's primary mission beginning later this year, according to the observatory.

What’s expected of the primary mission? The Legacy Survey of Space and Time mission will have Rubin take non-stop scans of the sky nightly for 10 years to capture visible change throughout the universe. The decade-long project will yield an ultrawide, ultra-high-definition time-lapse record of the universe and result in billions of scientific discoveries, according to the observatory. Expected images include asteroids, comets, pulsating stars, supernova explosions, and far-off galaxies, with the possibility of capturing new and unknown cosmic phenomena.

Rubin will take about 1,000 images of the Southern Hemisphere sky nightly, ultimately capturing the entire visible southern sky every three to four nights, according to the release. The telescope may also serve as planetary defense by flagging asteroids that could impact the Earth or the moon. The 10-year product will produce about 20 terabytes of data nightly, plus a 15-petabyte catalog database, for a projected 500 petabytes generated throughout the duration of the project. The data collected will be released for scientists to use in their own investigations and will be developed into an online public engagement platform for educators and students.

Dig deeper: Read Lauren Canterberry’s report from last December about a NASA probe surviving the closest-ever encounter with the sun.