World's most powerful digital camera captures historic first images
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What makes this camera so special? It has a massive 3.2-gigapixel sensor made up of 201 individual imaging sensors. Each sensor captures 16-megapixel images, all combined to create incredibly detailed photos. The camera takes quick 15-second exposures every 20 seconds, capturing light from ultraviolet to near-infrared wavelengths. This means it can see far beyond what previous telescopes could.
The journey started more than 20 years ago, led by the U.S. Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. After sharing early designs in 2015 and assembling the camera by 2020, the final build was completed in early 2025. The camera, roughly the size of a small car and weighing 6,600 pounds, was installed on the Simonyi Survey Telescope in March 2025. This marked a major milestone for the international team involved.
The first images show breathtaking views of the Trifid Nebula and Lagoon Nebula, captured over a seven-hour period. These pictures reveal faint details that were previously invisible. In just 10 hours of testing, the observatory captured millions of galaxies, stars, and thousands of asteroids. This is just a preview of what's to come during the upcoming 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST).
The Rubin Observatory isn't just about pretty pictures. It will collect more data in its first year than all previous optical telescopes combined. Scientists will use this data to study dark matter and dark energy, which make up most of the universe but remain mysterious. The observatory will also discover millions of new asteroids and comets, improving our understanding of the solar system and helping with planetary defense.
This camera and observatory are transforming the field of astronomy. Because it can scan the entire Southern Hemisphere sky every few nights, scientists will soon have an incredibly detailed, time-lapse record of the universe. The wealth of data collected will drive discoveries for years to come, spark new research, and help us understand the cosmos in ways that were never possible before.
The release of these first images is just the beginning. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory's powerful camera will change how we explore space, uncovering secrets of the universe and potentially protecting Earth from asteroid impacts. Stay tuned as this exciting project continues to open new windows on the cosmos.
If you had access to this groundbreaking camera, what moment in history would you capture, and why do you think it would change how we see the world? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com/Contact
Sign up for my FREE CyberGuy ReportGet my best tech tips, urgent security alerts, and exclusive deals delivered straight to your inbox. Plus, you'll get instant access to my Ultimate Scam Survival Guide - free when you join my CYBERGUY.COM/NEWSLETTER
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The Verge
11 hours ago
- The Verge
AI could turn your town nuclear
These days, Paducah, Kentucky — population 27,000 and home to the National Quilt Museum — prides itself as 'Quilt City.' But decades ago, it was also called the 'Atomic City' — a moniker it could soon regain as AI's energy needs bring Paducah's nuclear past back to life. The Department of Energy (DOE) operated a uranium enrichment plant in Paducah for more than 60 years until the plant shuttered in 2013 amid a downturn in nuclear energy. The same year, Paducah was designated a UNESCO 'creative city' for its quilts, a title it now boasts on its website (along with a city-led initiative to make Paducah more 'considerate and kind'). Today, the enrichment facility is in the spotlight again after a Peter Thiel-backed startup announced plans to revive the shuttered plant. In July, Donald Trump's administration also chose Paducah as one of four sites where it says it'll partner with private companies to develop AI data centers and energy projects. Big Tech — thirsty for enough electricity to power its AI ambitions — wants to make nuclear energy cool again. It's all playing into the Trump administration's plans to remake the US power grid without solar and wind power. If they manage to revitalize nuclear energy in America, the US is going to need more enriched uranium. And that supply chain could bring big changes to even small cities like Paducah. Big Tech — thirsty for enough electricity to power its AI ambitions — wants to make nuclear energy cool again General Matter emerged from stealth mode earlier this year, led by former SpaceX engineer Scott Nolan. Peter Thiel, who cofounded PayPal and the datamining company Palantir that's selling software to the Trump administration to surveil people who migrate to the US, joined General Matter's board. And Nolan stood in the Oval Office with Trump on May 23rd as he signed executive orders ostensibly aimed at ushering in 'a nuclear energy renaissance.' At an August 5th event in Paducah, General Matter shared details about its vision for the facility. It says it'll develop what it considers the 'the nation's first U.S.-owned, privately developed uranium enrichment facility' on the site and that it has signed 'a multi-decade, one hundred-acre lease' with the DOE. General Matter plans to start enriching uranium in Paducah by the end of the decade and 'produce the fuel needed for the next generation of nuclear energy, central to America's aspirations in AI, manufacturing, and other critical industries,' according to a statement on X. (A DOE press release says enrichment operations aren't planned until 2034, however, and that construction is slated to start in 2026.) That doesn't quite answer some key questions about the company's plans. (General Matter didn't respond to several emails from The Verge.) Will the company rely on the same outdated technology the shuttered plant has always used or build something new? If it does plan to revamp the facility with modern technology, does it plan to produce the same kind of low-enriched uranium that America's existing nuclear reactors run on, or does it think it can be one of the first plants to produce more highly enriched uranium (called HALEU) for advanced reactors? The answers to those questions will define how ambitious of a project this really is, and the impact it could have on power grids across the US. The recent DOE press release notes that General Matter is one of four companies the agency selected in October of last year to provide enrichment services for HALEU, although the DOE also announced plans to contract General Matter for low-enriched uranium in December. Enrichment is just one step, and kind of a headache, in the nuclear supply chain. Uranium first has to be mined and milled. Naturally occurring uranium has low levels of the isotope U-235 that nuclear fission reactors split to release energy. The uranium has to be converted into gas and then enriched to about a 5 percent concentration of U-235 to make fuel for a traditional reactor. Following a boom in nuclear power plants built in the 1970s and 1980s, however, the industry lost ground to gas-fired power plants generating electricity at lower costs. Nuclear reactors and uranium enrichment plants shuttered across the US. But now, the opposite is happening. Microsoft and Meta have inked deals over the past year to revive old reactors. Other tech giants, including Amazon and Google, have committed to supporting companies designing advanced reactors that are supposed to be smaller, easier, and cheaper to build — potentially solving many of the problems that have plagued the nuclear energy industry for years, if they can eventually prove that these technologies are going to be able to perform at commercial scale. That's all driving up demand for uranium enrichment, now seen as a significant bottleneck in the nuclear energy supply chain. General Matter isn't the only operation seeking to enrich uranium in Paducah. The DOE has had a deal with another company called Global Laser Enrichment (GLE) since 2016 to sell it leftover tails, depleted uranium, from years of enrichment for nuclear weapons and reactors at the site. GLE has been developing a new way to enrich uranium using lasers that's supposed to be efficient enough to re-enrich uranium tails so that they can be used to make fuel again. General Matter similarly plans to re-enrich depleted uranium tails in Paducah, according to the DOE press release, although we still don't know what kind of technology it will use to do so. Laser technology has yet to be used to enrich uranium at commercial scale. Over the past decade, there just wasn't enough demand for more uranium enrichment capacity in the US to move forward, says Nima Ashkeboussi, vice president of government relations and communications at GLE. Then Russia — a major supplier for nuclear fuel globally — invaded Ukraine, and in 2024, and the US barred imports of uranium from Russia. GLE applied for a license in June to finally start re-enriching the depleted uranium tails at a site adjacent to the Paducah plant, and expects to hear back from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in about 18 months. If all goes well, GLE plans to have its facility up and running by 2030 so it can start making the low-enriched uranium traditionally used by existing nuclear reactors. If at least one of the advanced reactors makes it to commercial operation, Ashkeboussi says that'll be a market signal that it can start producing more highly enriched uranium (called HALEU) that next-generation reactors need. For now, only Russia has the capability to commercially produce HALEU. But already, data centers and AI have been a major driver in reinvigorating nuclear energy, Ashkeboussi tells The Verge. 'We see that as a huge growth potential,' he says. Both the Biden and Trump administrations have worked toward onshoring the nuclear supply chain again. The US currently has the capacity to enrich about a third of the uranium its nuclear reactors need. For Joe Biden, nuclear energy supported US climate goals of slashing planet-heating pollution by transitioning away from fossil fuels in the power grid. Trump is sabotaging US climate commitments and renewable energy projects, but still says nuclear energy has a role to play when it comes to making sure US tech companies have enough electricity to dominate the AI market. The plans for Paducah seem to fit neatly into the Trump administration's vision for AI, which it released last month. In short, the plan includes fast-tracking the development of energy-hungry data centers in conjunction with primarily fossil fuel and nuclear power plants by limiting environmental reviews. 'It seems their mindset is construction and production at all costs.' The rush to build, especially as the Trump administration simultaneously guts the Environmental Protection Agency and Nuclear Regulatory Commission, has raised some flags over how much oversight and community participation there will be with these new projects. 'I don't have any confidence in what the administration is doing to protect public health and safety. It seems their mindset is construction and production at all costs,' says Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists that has been critical of the environmental and security risks nuclear energy can pose. Nuclear energy has been a divisive technology among people concerned about climate change and pollution. It's a carbon pollution-free source of electricity. But uranium mining near the Grand Canyon has already sparked opposition from environmental advocates and the Havasupai Tribe over how it could affect nearby communities and the water sources on which they rely. And the federal government has yet to solve decades of wrangling over where to store radioactive waste from nuclear reactors. Adding to those concerns, the Trump administration wants to build on federal lands and even repurpose polluted Superfund sites for all this infrastructure. The shuttered enrichment plant in Paducah itself is a Superfund site, which means it's on a list of places so contaminated that the Environmental Protection Agency has stepped in to prioritize their cleanup. That legacy shows the pitfalls and hurdles that policymakers and companies will have to try to avoid if they want to bring nuclear energy back to small-town USA. 'Regardless of what's happening with the Trump administration, this is a massively bipartisan undertaking regarding uranium enrichment. There is a lot of support for it right now. I think there's a lot of momentum to really get it right,' says Rowen Price, senior policy advisor for nuclear energy at the nonprofit Third Way, which supports nuclear energy. Local lawmakers, for their part, have shown optimism over Paducah potentially playing a pivotal role in the future of AI and energy in the US. General Matter's $1.5 billion proposed project in Paducah is supposed to create 140 jobs, according to Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY). 'Just a few years ago, the idea of Kentucky leading the next wave of nuclear energy development may have seemed ambitious,' Sen. Danny Carroll (R-KY) wrote in an op-ed in the Lexington Herald-Leader. 'Paducah is again at the center of America's nuclear future.' Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Justine Calma Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All AI Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Analysis Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Climate Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Energy Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Environment Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Report Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Science Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Tech
WIRED
12 hours ago
- WIRED
See 6 Planets Align in the Night Sky This August
Aug 6, 2025 8:14 AM This rare planetary alignment will be visible from August 10, but will be best viewed later in the month. Here's everything you need to know to see it at its best. On August 10, six planets—Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune—will line up in an arc in the night sky. Four of these planets—Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn—can be seen with the naked eye, while Uranus and Neptune will be visible through a very strong pair of skywatching binoculars or a backyard telescope. While August 10 marks the beginning of this planetary parade, these six planets will be visible until the final days of August, when Mercury sinks lower on the horizon and meanders too close to the sun to be observed safely. The next time that all of these planets will be visible together won't be until February 2026, so you won't want to miss this alignment. While this planetary parade starts on the 10th, the best date to view these planets is on the nights leading up to August 23, when there will be little to no moonlight and when Mercury will be at its furthest point from the sun. Moonlight and artificial light can wash out objects in the night sky, so you'll want to do your skywatching under a clear, moonless sky and away from artificial light. If you must use a flashlight, opt for one with red light to preserve your night vision. What to Expect Rising first are Neptune and Saturn, followed by Uranus, then Venus and Jupiter, and finally Mercury. Once these planets are above the horizon on August 10, if you're in the northern hemisphere, you will see Neptune and Saturn to the southwest (about 40 degrees above the horizon), followed by Uranus to the southeast (about 55 degrees above the horizon). Completing the arc in the east are Venus and Jupiter (both just over 20 degrees above the horizon) and lastly Mercury, which will just barely eke over the eastern horizon. If you're in the southern hemisphere, instead of looking south, you would look north to see these objects: Neptune and Saturn would be in the northwest, followed by Uranus in the north and slightly to the east. Venus, Jupiter, and Mercury would be slightly more to the northeast in the southern hemisphere, and they would be a few degrees lower on the horizon than in the northern hemisphere. Here's what you need to know about each of these planets and how to find them. Neptune and Saturn First, Neptune and Saturn rise together between about 8:30 pm and 10 pm local time in many locations in both hemispheres. The exact times that the planets rise and set will vary depending on your exact location; you can use websites like Time and Date to find exact times. Neptune and Saturn will remain together until they set in midmorning. They will appear slightly to the west of the moon, under the constellation Pisces. Saturn is very bright and easily visible to the naked eye. You can spot Saturn's marvellous rings with a pair of skywatching binoculars or a backyard telescope. Seeing Saturn's rings for the first time is one of the most awe-inspiring moments you can have when stargazing. You can also spot Saturn's largest moon, Titan, through a powerful pair of binoculars or a backyard telescope. Titan's name refers to its mammoth size: It's the second largest moon in our solar system and is actually larger than the planet Mercury. Neptune, however, is more difficult to spot. You'll need a powerful backyard telescope to see it, or perhaps a very powerful pair of skywatching binoculars. Because the moon will initially be so bright and so near to Neptune, conditions won't be ideal to see this planet on the 10th. The most ideal time to view Neptune will be the week centering on the New Moon on August 23, when there will be minimal to no moonlight to wash out the planets. On this night, the planets will rise a few minutes earlier than they will on August 10, and Saturn and Neptune will still appear to be just a couple of degrees apart, with Neptune being slightly above Saturn. Uranus Uranus rises between about 11:45 pm and 12:45 am local time in most locations in the northern hemisphere and upper part of the southern hemisphere. In very southern latitudes, you may not see Uranus until 1:30 to 2:30 am. You will need a powerful pair of binoculars or a powerful backyard telescope to see Uranus. Through a telescope, it looks like a star or a faint pale blue disc. Although Uranus has vertical rings, they are too faint to see through amateur stargazing equipment. Because the moon will be so bright on August 10, plan to observe this planet on August 23 when there will be little to no moonlight. Uranus will be positioned just under the star cluster Pleiades. If you're not able to catch Uranus with your binoculars or telescope, the Pleiades are well worth observing: This stunning star cluster contains seven very bright, well-known stars along with thousands of other dimmer or indistinguishable stars all grouped together. Jupiter and Venus Jupiter and Venus will rise between 2:30 am and 3:30 am local time in the northern hemisphere. In the southern hemisphere, you'll have to wait until about 4:00 to 5:30 am to see these two planets. Again, you can check Time and Date to see the times in your city. They will be slightly less than 1 degree apart, since they are almost at conjunction, sharing the same right ascension (the celestial version of longitude), meaning they're basically in the same position on an east-west axis. They will actually reach conjunction on the following night, August 11–12. Jupiter and Venus will be in the constellation Gemini. These two planets will be very easy to spot since they are the two brightest. You can easily see them with the naked eye; however, you won't want to miss viewing them with a backyard telescope or pair of skywatching binoculars. Jupiter's awe-inspiring cloud bands—including its famed Red Spot, a massive storm—are visible through binoculars or a telescope. However, because Jupiter rotates on its axis every 10 hours, observing its Red Spot can be tricky. The Red Spot is easiest to see when it crosses Jupiter's meridian, the imaginary line that connects the planet's north and south poles when viewing it. You can use this tool from Sky & Telescope to find the times when the Red Spot crosses or 'transits' the meridian from your vantage point. With the aid of skywatching equipment, you'll also be able to see Jupiter's four most prominent moons—Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto—which were discovered by Galileo in 1610. Skywatching equipment also reveals awe-inspiring details on Venus: Like the Moon, Venus has phases—full, gibbous, quarter, crescent, and new. However, unlike the moon's phases, Venus's phases aren't visible to the naked eye. Because Venus appears to be so small, you need a pair of binoculars or a telescope to view them. Look out for a crescent Venus in the night sky. Mercury Mercury rises last, between 4:30 and 5:30 am local time in most locations in the northern hemisphere and parts of the southern hemisphere. However, Mercury will rise around 6:30 am in more southern latitudes. It will be low on the horizon, so you'll want to observe this planet from a very flat area without trees or other obstructions in the east. Although Mercury will join this planetary parade on the 10th, the best window to see it is August 18 through 23, when there will be the most time between Mercury's rise and sunrise. During this window, there will be about an hour and a half between the time that Mercury rises and the sun comes up. This is down to Mercury reaching its greatest western elongation—its furthest point to the west of the sun—on August 19. Because you have such a narrow window of time to observe Mercury, you'll want to check Time and Date or the skywatching app Stellarium to see the most accurate times for sunrise and Mercury's rise in your location. Plan on observing Mercury just as it ekes over the horizon before sunrise when you have the most darkness possible. A word of caution, however: Don't use binoculars or a telescope to view Mercury, as it's too close to the sun—you don't want to risk accidentally pointing your equipment into the sun and damaging your eyes. Never stare at the sun with the naked eye, either. Use your best judgement about when to stop skywatching before the sky gets too bright. While Mercury will leave this planetary parade in the final days of August, when it sinks lower and lower on the horizon toward the sun, the other planets will still remain visible in the night sky, so you will have many nights of enjoyable skywatching ahead.
Forbes
17 hours ago
- Forbes
Planet Formation Theory Is Still Ensnared By A Chicken Or Egg Problem
In the rush to understand the formation history of solar systems like ours, one big conundrum still ensnares this field of research. That is, how protostellar disks form their very first planets. We don't yet know how that first planet gets formed, Nienke van der Marel an astronomer at Leiden University in The Netherlands, tells me in her office. We understand how clumping can be caused by physical forces within the disk once there's a planet in that disk, van der Marel tells me, but the biggest question is still how that first planet formed. Ongoing observations by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile's Northern Atacama Desert are largely responsible for the lion's share of our current knowledge about how protoplanetary disks form from millimeter-sized particles and grow into full-fledged planetary systems like ours. In 2013, using some of the first ALMA observations van der Marel and colleagues detected the existence of a dust trap in a protoplanetary disk around the young A-type star Oph-IRS 48, located some 400 light-years away in the Northern constellation of Ophiuchus. A dust trap is a location where millimeter-sized pebbles, are concentrated in one part of the disk, and where they can continue to grow all the way from planetesimals (planetary building blocks ranging from a few km to a few hundred km in diameter) to full-fledged planets. That first planet will carve a gap along its orbit and then at the outer edge of that gap, you naturally get a maximum in the density and a bump in the gas density, says van der Marel. So now, the pebbles that come from the outer disk still drift inwards, but then at that maximum pressure location, they get trapped, she says. But as soon as these particles reach typical pebble sizes (1 mm across), they will start to experience drag forces from the gas in the disk and rapidly move inwards toward the star, says van der Marel. Disappearing Pebbles So, within a hundred years, any pebble that you form out here in the outer region of the disk has moved all the way inwards and onto the star and is lost; it doesn't have time to continue growing all the way to planetesimals, says van der Marel. So, you need something that stops the pebbles from drifting inwards, she says. And the phenomenon that was proposed to stop it was a dust trap, says van der Marel. Planetary Disk Pressure Bumps 'Pressure bumps' or 'dust traps' present in the disk will halt these inward moving pebbles and trap them, says van der Marel. This whole idea creates a major chicken or egg problem, because if you need a planet to create dust traps, then dust traps are necessary to form planetesimals and planets, she says. Alternative Scenarios If indeed planets are the only source of dust traps, then we do have a chicken or egg problem to form the first planet, Olja Panic, an astrophysicist at the University of Leeds in the U.K., tells me in Reykjavik. But recent research has been directed towards identifying possible scenarios under which these dust traps can arise without the need for planets to cause them, says Panic. This could include various types of gravitational disk instabilities, whether generated from a passing star or during the disk's earliest formation. It is also possible that there are other mechanisms that create the first dust traps, such as magnetic fields, ionization structures (which would arrange molecules so that they have a net electrical charge), or even planetary snowlines. That is, regions in a young planetary disk where temperatures are so cold that water, ammonia, carbon monoxide or even methane can freeze into ice grains. Some researchers posit that this increase in ice density might even trigger the formation of gas giant planets like Jupiter. The idea is that these first dust traps would then concentrate these planetary pebbles until the first planet forms within the dust trap. But that has yet to be confirmed observationally. When Might This Problem Be Solved? Although ALMA's array of 66 telescopes work have allowed astronomers to see incredible detail in these disks of gas and dust around young stars, future telescopes will reveal even more detail about how these stars spawn planets. In the coming decades, a lot of new telescopes will teach us more about the composition of exoplanets which may also tell us how they form, says van der Marel. Just like ALMA, the Next Generation Very Large Array (NGVLA) in New Mexico is another up and coming radio array which will observe at even longer wavelengths where we can trace even larger dust grains, she says. That may help us to understand where most planet formation takes place, says van der Marel. Is our solar system an anomaly? We don't have the data right now to say for certain whether we are an anomaly or not, says van der Marel.
