'Staggering' first images from Vera C. Rubin Observatory show 10 million galaxies — and billions more are on the way
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After decades of preparation, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory released its first images to the world in a live stream on Monday (June 23). The photos, taken by the world's largest digital camera, are highly-detailed and show relatively large areas of the sky.
In a televised news conference, scientists from the observatory revealed new details about the images that far surpass the "sneak peek" images released earlier in the day. In fact, an awe-inspiring spiral galaxy image shared prior to the press conference on Monday only shows about 2% of the space cataloged in Rubin's first photo of the night sky, project scientists revealed.
The full image includes 10 million galaxies in and around the Virgo Cluster, many of which have never been seen before, Zeljko Ivezic, Project Scientist at Rubin and Deputy Director of the observatory's Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) construction project, said during the live stream.
The complete image is a whopping 3200 megapixels, which would need to be displayed on 400 ultra-high-definition TV screens for human eyes to resolve it — enough monitors to blanket an entire basketball court — Ivezic explained.
You can find all of the first-look images on the observatory's website, including a searchable and zoomable version of the full 3200-megapixel image.
In the observatory's first year of operation, it will gather more data than all other existing optical observatories combined, according to a statement from the observatory.
This data will be freely available to scientists in hopes that it will lead to critical new discoveries about the universe, including the locations of previously unseen asteroids, insights into the properties of dark matter and dark energy — two invisible entities that make up a majority of the universe but remain poorly understood — and more.
Related: Vera C. Rubin Observatory: The groundbreaking mission to make a 10-year, time-lapse movie of the universe
"I trust that the stunning images and staggering amount of data the observatory will produce will support exceptional scientific efforts around the world," said Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, in the conference.
During its planned 10 years of operation, Rubin will produce about 20 terabytes of data per night by taking high-resolution photographs of the night sky at 30-second intervals, according to the statement. By the end of its run, the observatory will have captured an estimated 40 billion celestial objects and taken trillions of measurements.
The Rubin team hopes that this data will advance understanding of mysterious cosmic phenomena. "Starting today, our ability to understand dark matter, dark energy and planetary defense will grow even faster than ever before," Brian Stone, chief of staff of the National Science Foundation, which operates the Observatory along with the U.S. Department of Energy, said in the conference.
Once fully operational later this year, Rubin will continuously take photos of the night sky to capture every possible movement of the celestial objects it can see. It will collect about 1,000 images per night, covering the Southern sky every three or four nights. These images will then be stitched together to create an extremely detailed time-lapse movie of the universe.
The time-lapse will reveal the nightly movements of asteroids, comets, stars, supernovas, galaxies and possibly other cosmic phenomena that are as yet unknown, the statement noted.
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In its first few nights of observations, for example, the Rubin Observatory pinpointed the locations of more than 2,000 previously unknown asteroids moving through our solar system. By the end of its mission, the observatory is expected to discover some 5 million new asteroids — about five times the number of all known asteroids discovered in the last 200 years, researchers said in the conference.
"The movie has started, the camera is running and we're going to see our cosmos unfold before us," said Chris Wright, Secretary for the Department of Energy, in the conference.
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CNN
an hour ago
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How Far Are We from Animal Organs Saving Lives? - Chasing Life with Dr. Sanjay Gupta - Podcast on CNN Audio
Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:00:03 'Welcome to Paging Dr. Gupta. This is one of my favorite parts of the week, because I get a chance to connect with you, to answer your questions, and to hear what's on your mind. I also often get to talk about some of the big medical developments that are shaping our lives. If you caught last week's episode, for example, you know that we've been diving into something that sounds very much like science fiction, but at the same time has become very real, quickly, xeno-transplantation, X-E-N-O, transplantation. That is the medical term for transplanting organs from one species into another. In this case, specifically from animals into humans. Even more specifically, from pigs into people. Now, I'm so fascinated by this. I spent two years working on a documentary and we covered everything from the special pig farms to operating rooms. Scientists, surgeons, and patients who are making this happen. I spent a lot of time with all of them. Today, I'm really excited to keep the conversation going by answering the many questions you guys sent in. So let's get into it. Kyra's back with us. What do we have, Kyra? What's up first? Kyra Dahring 00:01:20 Yeah, so Paul wrote in wondering something pretty fascinating about personalized organs, and I'm gonna read it to you. So he wrote: over the past two decades, work was happening in the area of using one's cell makeup to create an organ in the lab. Is this still an approach being considered? Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:01:37 Okay, Paul, this is a great question. And the answer is yes. There is work that is being done in this particular space of creating basically individualized organs. One of the efforts of a company known as United Therapeutics, they work in the xenotransplant area, one of their efforts is also in creating what can best be called ghost organs. And we got a chance to see this. So imagine this, okay, so you have a pig organ, maybe a pig heart in this case, and it essentially is cleansed using these detergents of all of its biology, of all its cells. The only thing left is the scaffolding of the organ, okay? And then that scaffolding is essentially repopulated, reseeded with human cells, a specific human cells. Now, if you think about that, that essentially now is a personalized organ for somebody. This approach, this idea of creating ghost organs, is still further off than where we are currently with xenotransplantation. But I think to your question, this is the future. These ghost organs that are repopulated with an individual's human cells to create a personalized organ, that may be what we can expect in the future, so for example, let's say you have cardiac disease or you have some sort of disease where you know you're gonna need a transplant in the feature. You could potentially create a personalized organ that would be ready to go when you need it. Before your condition gets too far along, scientists could take some of your cells, simply from your blood or your skin, grow those cells, and then use them to populate the ghost organ scaffolding. Not only do you have an organ designed for you, but because they are your cells immunosuppression, rejection, acceptance, that shouldn't be an issue. It is essentially your organ. Now stick around, after the break we're going to get into just how many of these pig kidneys have actually made it into humans, and the bigger question, could this really solve the organ shortage crisis? Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:03:54 Okay, we're gonna try and get to as many pages as possible. Kyra, what do we have next? Kyra Dahring 00:03:59 'Next is Ann from Kansas, and she wants to know, you know, how many pig kidney transplants have been done? Whether anyone's lived long-term with them? And if they use different anti-rejection meds than the typical transplant. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:04:14 'All right, first of all, how many kidney xenotransplants? Four in two living patients. And the reason I say living patients is because the first couple of transplants were actually done into patients who were brain dead. These were patients who had signed up to be organ donors, but instead in a way they became organ recipients when they were brain-dead. It was an opportunity for scientists to try and study, could these pig organs actually survive in the human body and they found that it worked. So in March of 2024, the first patient, a guy named Rick Slayman at Massachusetts General Hospital got a transplant, a xenotransplant, and he lived for two additional months. In April 2024, a month later, Lisa Pisano got a transplant, lived for a two additional month. A few months later, November of 2024 the third patient, Towana Looney at NYU got a pig kidney. She is still alive, but had to have the pig kidney removed after 130 days because of an unrelated infection. And then in January of 2025, this year, Tim Andrews, the fourth patient, he still has his xenotransplant and soon is gonna surpass 130 days, becoming the longest survivor in the world with a xenotransplant. Now, in addition to the four xeno kidney transplants, there have been two pig heart transplants as well, both at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. January of 2022, David Bennett lived for two additional months. September of 2023, Larry Faucette lived for an additional six weeks. Now, I just wanted to name everybody there because all the folks I just mentioned are pioneers. They volunteered, they put their hands up to do something that had never been done before. And they really sort of ventured out into the unknown. Very, very brave. And as a result of their efforts, they have really advanced science. That's why I wanted to give you all their names. 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Five years. Five years is the number that I was given over and over again. Kidneys, in part, are going to be the first organs to really get to scale, but it sounds like they're also going to get to hearts, livers, and possibly lungs. We're about to enter clinical trials this summer with United Therapeutics, and we had a chance to visit the farm where they're raising the pigs for the trials. These are biosecure farms, look nothing like a typical farm. They have these filters and clean water and air. In some ways the food and the water and the air that the pigs are getting is even cleaner than what the humans are getting that work there. They have a high level of security. They have their operating rooms right there on campus. So they take the organs there and then send the organs directly to recipients around the country. I don't know, Alia, that I would necessarily say that this is going to solve the organ shortage crisis, but I think it's going to be a very important stopgap. Keep in mind, some of these farms can raise thousands of pigs, and there's a few of these farms around the country, but there's 100,000 people on the waiting list for organs in the United States alone. 17 people who die waiting for an organ. So we're going to need hundreds of thousands of organs potentially to try and solve the organ shortage crisis. And then there are a lot of people who don't currently qualify for transplant, even though they probably should, they're just not sick enough. Then the question becomes, could these pig organs start to supply organs to those folks as well? It's a fascinating field. It combines so many different scientific developments. IVF, cloning, CRISPR gene editing, transplant immunology, transplant surgery. All these scientific developments, some of them Nobel Prize winning developments, came together to create this field of xenotransplantation and potentially save and extend a lot of lives in the process. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:09:28 'Thanks for being so fascinated by this like I am and thank you for writing in your questions, sending in your question. I always love hearing what you're curious about. And if there's something else health related you've been wondering about, don't be shy, record a voice memo, email it to AskSanjay@ or give us a call, 470-396-0832, leave a message, and be sure to check out part two of our Chasing Life special on xenotransplantation. I'm gonna dive even deeper into what this breakthrough could mean for the future of medicine overall. The documentary is called Animal Pharm, P-H-A-R-M, and part two will be on the feed Friday. Thanks for listening, and I'll be back next Tuesday. Chasing Life is a production of CNN Audio. Our podcast is produced by Eryn Mathewson, Jennifer Lai, Grace Walker, Lori Galaretta, Jesse Remedios, Sofia Sanchez, Kyra Dahring, and Madeleine Thompson. Andrea Kane is our medical writer, our senior producer is Dan Bloom, Amanda Sealy is our showrunner, Dan Dzula is our technical director, and the executive producer of CNN Audio is Steve Lickteig. With support from Jamus Andrest, Jon Dianora, Haley Thomas, Alex Manasseri, Robert Mathers, Leni Steinhardt, Nichole Pesaru, and Lisa Namerow. Special thanks to Ben Tinker and Nadia Kounang of CNN Health and Wendy Brundige.
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Liver Transplantation May Reduce Colorectal Neoplasia Risk
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Medscape
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Dementia Risk May Follow a Geographic Pattern
TOPLINE: Dementia incidence varied significantly by US region in a new study, with the Southeast showing a 25% higher risk and the Northwest and Rocky Mountains each showing a 23% higher risk compared to the Mid-Atlantic. Investigators said the findings highlight the need for a geographically tailored approach to address dementia risk factors and diagnostic services. METHODOLOGY: Researchers conducted a cohort study using data from the US Veterans Health Administration for more than 1.2 million older adults without dementia (mean age, 73.9 years; 98%% men) from 1999 to 2021. The average follow-up was 12.6 years. Ten geographical regions across the US were defined using the CDC National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion definition. The diagnosis of dementia was made using International Classification of Diseases, Ninth and Tenth Revision codes from inpatient and outpatient visits. TAKEAWAY: Dementia incidence rates per 1000 person-years were lowest in the Mid-Atlantic (11.2; 95% CI, 11.1-11.4) and highest in the Southeast (14.0; 95% CI, 13.8-14.2). After adjusting for demographics, compared with the Mid-Atlantic region, dementia incidence was highest in the Southeast (rate ratio [RR], 1.25), followed by the Northwest and Rocky Mountains (RR for both, 1.23), South (RR, 1.18), Southwest (RR, 1.13), and Midwest and South Atlantic (RR for both, 1.12). The Great Lakes and Northeast regions had < a 10% difference in incidence. Results remained consistent after adjusting for rurality and cardiovascular comorbidities, and after accounting for competing risk for death. IN PRACTICE: 'This study provides valuable insights into the regional variation in dementia incidence among US veterans in that we observed more than 20% greater incidence in several regions compared with the Mid-Atlantic region,' the investigators wrote. 'By identifying areas with the highest incidence rates, resources can be better allocated and targeted interventions designed to mitigate the impact of dementia on vulnerable populations,' they added. SOURCE: This study was led by Christina S. Dintica, PhD, University of California, San Francisco. It was published online on June 9 in JAMA Neurology. LIMITATIONS: This study population was limited to US veterans, limiting the generalizability of the findings. Education level was defined using educational attainment rates in the participants' zip codes rather than individual data. Additionally, because residential history was limited to a single location per participant, migration patterns could not be tracked. DISCLOSURES: This study was supported by grants from the Alzheimer's Association, the National Institute on Aging, and the Department of Defense. One author reported serving on data and safety monitoring boards for studies sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, as well as holding advisory board membership and receiving personal fees from industry. Full details are listed in the original article. The other four investigators reported no relevant financial conflicts. This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.
