New giant telescope reveals its 1st images of our universe

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, located atop Cerro Pachón in Chile, has recently unveiled its first images captured by the largest digital camera ever built. This groundbreaking telescope, also known as the Simonyi Survey Telescope, is equipped with the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) camera and will be surveying the southern hemisphere skies for the next decade.

With its impressive 8.4-metre telescope and 3,200-megapixel camera, the observatory can cover the entire night sky every few nights, generating a staggering 20 terabytes of data each night. To put this into perspective, viewing a single image at full size would require the display of 400 ultra high-definition televisions.

Renée Hložek, an associate professor at the University of Toronto and spokesperson for the dark energy science collaboration at the observatory, expressed excitement about the telescope’s capabilities. She explained that the camera is so sensitive that images are captured in short intervals of 15 to 30 seconds to prevent saturation.

The telescope’s primary goal is to unravel the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy, which constitute a significant portion of the universe. Dark energy, responsible for accelerating the expansion of the universe, accounts for about 70% of its composition. Dark matter, on the other hand, makes up roughly 25% of the universe and was first postulated by astronomer Fritz Zwicky in the 1930s.

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory will also map the Milky Way, track asteroids, and create the largest astronomical movie ever produced. The first-look data released by the observatory included the discovery of over 2,000 asteroids, reassuring the public that none pose a threat to Earth.

The observatory’s images and data are accessible to astronomers worldwide, as well as the general public, with opportunities for citizen science projects to contribute to new discoveries. Zeljko Ivezic, director of the observatory, expressed optimism about the potential for groundbreaking discoveries with the telescope, stating that astronomers will be searching for “unknown unknowns.”

After years of planning and construction, the astronomers at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory are thrilled to see their efforts come to fruition. Sandrine Thomas, telescope and site project scientist, described the observatory’s launch as an “amazing achievement.” With its cutting-edge technology and ambitious goals, the observatory is poised to revolutionize our understanding of the cosmos in the coming years.