First look: Rubin Observatory's images reveal universe like never before
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory released its first images, showcasing millions of galaxies. The images are also expected to reveal thousands of previously unknown space objects.
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Forbes
an hour ago
- Forbes
A ‘New Star' Suddenly Got 3 Million Times Brighter — How To See It
A new star has appeared in the night sky and is rapidly brightening, according to amateur astronomers. Called V462 Lupi, it's currently 3.3 million times brighter than usual and visible to the naked eye, though only from more southerly regions of North America. The Lupus constellation, home to V462 Lupi, a nova that is rapidly brightening. getty The star has increased in brightness by almost 16 times in the 20 days since it was discovered. When it was first seen, V462 Lupi was +8.7 magnitude — too dim to be seen with the naked eye — but has since rapidly brightened to +5.7 magnitude, which is on the cusp of naked eye visibility. It's usually a +22.3 magnitude star, 3.3 million times dimmer than it's right now. Since this is its first recorded eruption, it's unknown how long V462 Lupi will be visible to the naked eye. It could take just a few days to return to its regular dim levels, or it could take months. V462 Lupi is in the constellation Lupus, the wolf, which is between the constellations Scorpius and Centaurus, but it's not known how far away it is from the solar system. The star is known as a nova, a Latin term meaning 'new star.' It's thought to be a classical nova, an outburst in a binary system where a white dwarf (the dense leftover core of a dying sun-like star) and an expanding red giant star orbit each other. According to NASA, the white dwarf's gravity pulls hot hydrogen from its companion, which builds up and triggers a thermonuclear blast. Unlike supernovas, which obliterate stars, novas are recurring events that only affect the outer layer of a white dwarf. These outbursts can make the system millions of times brighter. How To See V462 Lupi According to Sky and Telescope (which has a useful selection of sky charts), those observing from a latitude around 40 degrees north (California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Jersey) will find V462 Lupi around 10 degrees above the southern horizon at around 10:30 p.m. local time. From the Florida Keys, at around 25 degrees north, V462 Lupi will be 25 degrees above the southern horizon. The higher it is in the sky, the easier it will be to see, though binoculars will make it easier. A finder chart for telescope users is available on the website of the American Association of Variable Star Observers. It's near the bright stars Delta and Beta Lupi. V462 Lupi has appeared as astronomers await the explosion of a recurrent nova — a "repeating new star" that explodes every 80 years. Called T Coronae Borealis (also known as T CrB and the "Blaze Star"), it's classified as a 'cataclysmic variable star' and was observed to brighten to naked-eye visibility in both 1866 and then 80 years later in 1946. A 10-year drop in T CrB's light was reported in a paper in 2023 — thought to be a precursor to a rapid brightening — but it's yet to do so despite predictions it would go nova in March. T CrB is approximately 3,000 light-years away from the solar system — significantly farther than most stars visible in the night sky — which means it exploded 3,000 years ago. Further reading Forbes A Star May Explode Next Week In Once-In-80-Years Event — What To Know By Jamie Carter Forbes NASA Urges Public To Look At Night Sky Now For 'Nova' Location By Jamie Carter Forbes NASA Spacecraft 'Touches Sun' For Final Time In Defining Moment For Humankind By Jamie Carter Forbes Get Ready For The Shortest Day Since Records Began As Earth Spins Faster By Jamie Carter
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory will help astronomers investigate dark matter, continuing the legacy of its pioneering namesake
Everything in space – from the Earth and Sun to black holes – accounts for just 15% of all matter in the universe. The rest of the cosmos seems to be made of an invisible material astronomers call dark matter. Astronomers know dark matter exists because its gravity affects other things, such as light. But understanding what dark matter is remains an active area of research. With the release of its first images this month, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory has begun a 10-year mission to help unravel the mystery of dark matter. The observatory will continue the legacy of its namesake, a trailblazing astronomer who advanced our understanding of the other 85% of the universe. As a historian of astronomy, I've studied how Vera Rubin's contributions have shaped astrophysics. The observatory's name is fitting, given that its data will soon provide scientists with a way to build on her work and shed more light on dark matter. From its vantage point in the Chilean Andes mountains, the Rubin Observatory will document everything visible in the southern sky. Every three nights, the observatory and its 3,200 megapixel camera will make a record of the sky. This camera, about the size of a small car, is the largest digital camera ever built. Images will capture an area of the sky roughly 45 times the size of the full Moon. With a big camera with a wide field of view, Rubin will produce about five petabytes of data every year. That's roughly 5,000 years' worth of MP3 songs. After weeks, months and years of observations, astronomers will have a time-lapse record revealing anything that explodes, flashes or moves – such as supernovas, variable stars or asteroids. They'll also have the largest survey of galaxies ever made. These galactic views are key to investigating dark matter. Deep field images from the Hubble Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope and others have visually revealed the abundance of galaxies in the universe. These images are taken with a long exposure time to collect the most light, so that even very faint objects show up. Researchers now know that those galaxies aren't randomly distributed. Gravity and dark matter pull and guide them into a structure that resembles a spider's web or a tub of bubbles. The Rubin Observatory will expand upon these previous galactic surveys, increasing the precision of the data and capturing billions more galaxies. In addition to helping structure galaxies throughout the universe, dark matter also distorts the appearance of galaxies through an effect referred to as gravitational lensing. Light travels through space in a straight line − unless it gets close to something massive. Gravity bends light's path, which distorts the way we see it. This gravitational lensing effect provides clues that could help astronomers locate dark matter. The stronger the gravity, the bigger the bend in light's path. For centuries, astronomers tracked and measured the motion of planets in the solar system. They found that all the planets followed the path predicted by Newton's laws of motion, except for Uranus. Astronomers and mathematicians reasoned that if Newton's laws are true, there must be some missing matter – another massive object – out there tugging on Uranus. From this hypothesis, they discovered Neptune, confirming Newton's laws. With the ability to see fainter objects in the 1930s, astronomers began tracking the motions of galaxies. California Institute of Technology astronomer Fritz Zwicky coined the term dark matter in 1933, after observing galaxies in the Coma Cluster. He calculated the mass of the galaxies based on their speeds, which did not match their mass based on the number of stars he observed. He suspected that the cluster could contain an invisible, missing matter that kept the galaxies from flying apart. But for several decades he lacked enough observational evidence to support his theory. In 1965, Vera Rubin became the first women hired onto the scientific staff at the Carnegie Institution's Department of Terrestrial Magnetism in Washington, D.C. She worked with Kent Ford, who had built an extremely sensitive spectrograph and was looking to apply it to a scientific research project. Rubin and Ford used the spectrograph to measure how fast stars orbit around the center of their galaxies. In the solar system, where most of the mass is within the Sun at the center, the closest planet, Mercury, moves faster than the farthest planet, Neptune. 'We had expected that as stars got farther and farther from the center of their galaxy, they would orbit slower and slower,' Rubin said in 1992. What they found in galaxies surprised them. Stars far from the galaxy's center were moving just as fast as stars closer in. 'And that really leads to only two possibilities,' Rubin explained. 'Either Newton's laws don't hold, and physicists and astronomers are woefully afraid of that … (or) stars are responding to the gravitational field of matter which we don't see.' Data piled up as Rubin created plot after plot. Her colleagues didn't doubt her observations, but the interpretation remained a debate. Many people were reluctant to accept that dark matter was necessary to account for the findings in Rubin's data. Rubin continued studying galaxies, measuring how fast stars moved within them. She wasn't interested in investigating dark matter itself, but she carried on with documenting its effects on the motion of galaxies. Today, more people are aware of Rubin's observations and contributions to our understanding of dark matter. In 2019, a congressional bill was introduced to rename the former Large Synoptic Survey Telescope to the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. In June 2025, the U.S. Mint released a quarter featuring Vera Rubin. Rubin continued to accumulate data about the motions of galaxies throughout her career. Others picked up where she left off and have helped advance dark matter research over the past 50 years. In the 1970s, physicist James Peebles and astronomers Jeremiah Ostriker and Amos Yahil created computer simulations of individual galaxies. They concluded, similarly to Zwicky, that there was not enough visible matter in galaxies to keep them from flying apart. They suggested that whatever dark matter is − be it cold stars, black holes or some unknown particle − there could be as much as 10 times the amount of dark matter than ordinary matter in galaxies. Throughout its 10-year run, the Rubin Observatory should give even more researchers the opportunity to add to our understanding of dark matter. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Samantha Thompson, Smithsonian Institution Read more: Dark matter: The mystery substance physics still can't identify that makes up the majority of our universe What is space made of? An astrophysics expert explains all the components – from radiation to dark matter – found in the vacuum of space Researchers dig deep underground in hopes of finally observing dark matter Samantha Thompson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Final photo from iconic US satellite shows how Las Vegas has 'doubled' in size over the last 25 years
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. QUICK FACTS Where is it? Las Vegas, Nevada [36.10457930, -115.1448612] What's in the photos? Aerial shots taken at the start and end of a satellite's operational lifespan Which satellite took the photos? Landsat 7 When were the photos taken? July 4, 1999 and May 28, 2024 The last image captured by the recently decommissioned Landsat 7 satellite shows the sprawling mass of Las Vegas flowering in the heart of the Mojave Desert. The final photo also mirrors one of the satellite's first-ever shots, highlighting how "Sin City" has rapidly expanded during the iconic spacecraft's 25-year lifespan. Landsat 7 is an Earth-observing satellite co-owned by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) that orbits our planet roughly every 99 minutes. It was launched on April 15, 1999, and has since taken more than 3.3 million images of Earth's surface, covering almost every square inch of the globe. On June 4, the satellite received its final transmission from operators, marking the official end of its mission after a year-long decommissioning process that took the spacecraft out of the path of other satellites before it ran out of fuel. Landsat 7 will now drift in space for around 55 years before eventually reentering and burning up in the atmosphere, according to a USGS statement. The satellite's final image was captured on May 28, 2024. It shows the Las Vegas metropolitan area, including towns such as Henderson, Paradise and Spring Valley, sprawled across the Nevada desert. The final image was taken from the same distance and angle as one of the satellite's first shots of the city, taken on July 4, 1999. Comparing the two side-by-side shows how much the city has expanded — nearly doubling in size. Related: See all the best images of Earth from space Between 2000 and 2023, the population of the Las Vegas metropolitan area went from 1.38 million to 2.33 million, which is an increase of around 69%, according to USGS. In 2025, an estimated 2.4 million live in the area. Lake Mead, an artificial reservoir of the Colorado River created by the Hoover Dam, can also be seen in both satellite images. The lake is noticeably smaller in the latest image, possibly due to increased water consumption in the region it serves or the effects of human-caused climate change. However, the lake's size naturally fluctuates, both seasonally and annually, making it hard to tell how it is being impacted by anthropogenic factors, according to NASA's Earth Observatory. Landsat 7 is the seventh satellite in the Landsat program, which has been continuously capturing images of Earth's surface since 1972. It was a serious upgrade from previous iterations and was particularly good at photographing urban areas, which was its primary focus. The spacecraft played a major role in the development of mapping services, including Google Maps, and also captured unique perspectives of some iconic moments in recent history, including the 9/11 terror attacks, Hurricane Katrina, and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The satellite was only designed to operate for five years, but it has far exceeded this target, despite suffering a significant instrument failure in 2003, which was later fixed. NASA previously reconsidered refueling the satellite in orbit to extend its lifespan, but this first-of-its-kind maneuver was never attempted. MORE EARTH FROM SPACE —Quadruple volcanoes on secret Soviet military base linked to climate-altering eruption 200 years ago —A mysterious 'black hole' in Pacific Ocean that sparked wild rumors online —The mysterious hill in Sudan that looks like 'landlocked lips' There are now only two operational Landsat satellites circling our planet: Landsat 8, which has been in orbit for more than 12 years; and Landsat 9, which launched in September 2021. The 10th Landsat satellite, named Landsat Next, was supposed to be launched by 2031. However, its funding is now uncertain thanks to the drastic cuts to NASA's budget proposed by the Trump administration, and mission experts are now "assessing alternate mission architectures," according to the Landsat Next homepage.
