See images from the Rubin telescope and world's largest digital camera
This has been called the golden age of astronomy, and there's a new telescope on the block — or, more precisely, on top of a mountain in Chile. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, funded by American taxpayers, on Monday released its first test images.
The Rubin telescope, featuring a 3,200-megapixel camera, promises to see more galaxies than ever seen before, as well as supernovas, comets and millions of asteroids. Sometime in the months ahead it will begin a 10-year survey, called the Legacy Survey of Space and Time, that will create what the Rubin team calls an 'ultrawide, ultra-high-definition time-lapse record of the universe.'
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Fast Company
3 hours ago
- Fast Company
Vera Rubin Observatory reveals jaw-dropping first images from world's largest telescope
This morning, the world's largest telescope revealed its first-ever images of space—and they're pretty jaw-dropping. The images come courtesy of the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, a scientific facility funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. Located at the summit of Cerro Pachón in Chile, the facility is the product of more than 20 years of work. Its space camera—embedded in the hulking Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) —is about the size of a small car and includes a sensor array of three billion pixels, the most sensors ever used in a telescope camera. According to a press release from the Rubin Observatory, it's expected to generate an 'ultrawide, ultra-high-definition time-lapse record of the Universe.' 'It will bring the sky to life with a treasure trove of billions of scientific discoveries,' the release reads. 'The images will reveal asteroids and comets, pulsating stars, supernova explosions, far-off galaxies and perhaps cosmic phenomena that no one has seen before.' 'The most efficient Solar System discovery machine ever built' In just its first 10-hour test observation, unveiled today, the LSST managed to capture images which include millions of galaxies and Milky Way stars, as well as more than 2,000 never-before-seen asteroids within our Solar System. Taken together, the photos illustrate a technicolor view of space at a mind-boggling scale—but the 10 million galaxies photographed by the LSST represent only 0.05% of the roughly 20 billion galaxies that the camera is expected to record within the next decade. The primary goal of the LSST is to complete a 10-year survey of the Southern hemisphere sky, capturing hundreds of images and around 20 terabytes of data per night throughout that period. Per the Rubin Observatory, this massive influx of data will make the LSST 'the most efficient and effective Solar System discovery machine ever built.' All of the captured data will be made available online, allowing astronomers across the globe to access countless new findings without physical access to the telescope. The LSST is designed to advance four main areas of study: Understanding the nature of dark matter and dark energy; creating an inventory of the Solar System; mapping the Milky Way; and exploring the transient optical sky, i.e. studying objects that move or change in brightness. Experts predict that, given its capacity to identify millions of unseen asteroids, comets, and interstellar objects, the camera could even help protect the planet by spotting objects on a trajectory toward the Earth or Moon. 'NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory will capture more information about our Universe than all optical telescopes throughout history combined,' Brian Stone, chief of staff at the National Science Foundation, said in a press release. 'Through this remarkable scientific facility, we will explore many cosmic mysteries, including the dark matter and dark energy that permeate the Universe.'
Wall Street Journal
3 hours ago
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TNB Tech Minute: Main Street Banks Could Get Opening to Join Stablecoin Market - Tech News Briefing
Full Transcript This transcript was prepared by a transcription service. This version may not be in its final form and may be updated. Speaker 1: Here's your TNB Tech minute for Monday, June 23rd. I'm Victoria Craig for the Wall Street Journal. Main Street banks worried about getting left behind by the push into crypto might soon get an opening. The Journal exclusively reports that financial technology giant Fiserv has plans to launch a stablecoin and platform that can be used by clients including 3,000 regional and community banks. A broad shift to crypto would put deposits at those more local banks at risk, because they're reliant on those deposits to make loans. If customers were to pull deposits and put the funds into stablecoins, it would leave those banks less room to lend and squeeze a critical revenue source. Elsewhere, German auto parts company Continental said today it's partnering with semiconductor maker GlobalFoundries to design its own vehicle computer chips. The new organization called Advanced Electronics & Semiconductor Solutions will design and test chips tailored for automotive products of its spinoff, Aumovio. Continental said the new unit will reduce geopolitical risk and make the company more self-reliant. And finally, a US-funded space observatory perched in the Andes mountains in Chile released its first images of deep space using the world's largest digital camera. It's the first time a telescope has been able to peer this far and wide into the cosmos. And for the next 10 years, the observatory will take photos of the southern sky at 30-second intervals every three to four nights. Scientists hope the project called The Legacy Survey of Space and Time will inventory the solar system, map the Milky Way, catalog billions of transient space objects, and unlock the mysteries of dark matter and energy. For a deeper dive into what's happening in tech, check out Tuesday's Tech News Briefing podcast.
CNN
4 hours ago
- CNN
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