Latest news with #CerroPachón
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Vera Rubin Observatory glows under recalibration LEDs
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Named in honor of female astronomer Vera Rubin, whose pioneering work on galaxy rotation provided key evidence for dark matter, the Vera Rubin Observatory uses the world's largest digital camera to peer at the night sky, looking for dark matter in our universe. What is it? This state-of-the-art facility houses the Simonyi Survey Telescope, which includes a 27.5 foot (8.4 meters) primary mirror. Inside the dome, Rubin uses special recalibration lights to check and correct for variations in the sensors and other instruments. These lights help engineers map uneven pixel responses and find shadows or other irregularities. Where is it? The Vera Rubin Observatory sits atop the mountain Cerro Pachón in northern Chile. Why is it amazing? The rings in the calibration lights correspond to machining marks from the precision-shaped reflector which helps to spread light more evenly across the screen, according to NOIRLab. As the Rubin Observatory has begun its 10-year long Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), hunting for dark matter in the universe so astronomers can determine what it is, its recalibrations become important to ensure the telescope is functioning properly. The calibration also helps astronomers find what are genuine cosmic anomalies versus instrumental error, allowing them to zero in on reliable data for their research. Want to learn more? You can read more about the Vera Rubin Observatory and its hunt for dark matter. Solve the daily Crossword
Fox News
14-07-2025
- Science
- Fox News
World's most powerful digital camera captures historic first images
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory has just released its first images, captured by the world's most powerful digital camera. Located on Cerro Pachón in Chile, this camera is set to transform how we see the universe. After years of planning and building, the observatory is ready to deliver stunning, ultra-detailed views of the night sky. 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 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 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 Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
Yahoo
29-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
How the largest digital camera ever made is revolutionizing our view of space
Last Thursday, I took my son to the Rose Center for Earth and Space at New York's Museum of Natural History. In the Hayden Planetarium, we watched a simulation of the Milky Way bloom above us, while the actor Pedro Pascal — who truly is everywhere — narrated the galactic dance unfolding on the screen. It was breathtaking. But it didn't compare to what was blasted around the world just a few days later, as the new Vera C. Rubin Observatory began broadcasting its 'first light' — its inaugural images of the cosmos. I found myself pinching-to-zoom through a picture that contains roughly 10 million galaxies in a single frame, a vista so vast it would take 400 4-K TVs to display at full resolution. I could hold the universe itself on my screen. Perched 8,660 feet up Cerro Pachón in the Chilean Andes, where the crystal-clear nights provide an exceptionally clear window into space, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory began construction in 2015 with funding from the US National Science Foundation (NSF) and the US Department of Energy. Named for the pioneering astronomer Vera Rubin, whose work on galaxy rotation helped prove the existence of dark matter, the observatory was built to run a single, audacious experiment: the 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time. It will photograph the entire Southern Hemisphere sky every few nights to tackle four grand goals: unmask dark matter and dark energy, inventory the Solar System's asteroids and comets, chart the Milky Way's formation, and capture every transient cosmic event. What makes Rubin so special is its eye, which is a marvel. At its core is a 27-foot-wide dual mirror cast from 51,900 pounds of molten glass that is still light enough to sweep across the sky in seconds. The mirror directs a flow of light from the cosmic depths to the 3.2-gigapixel LSST Camera, a 5-by-10-feet digital jumbotron that is the largest digital camera ever made. It's like a massive magnifying glass paired with the world's sharpest DSLR: Together they capture a swath of the night sky equivalent to 45 full moons every 30 seconds. And those images, which will be continuously shared with the world, are jaw-dropping. The headlining shot from Rubin's debut, nicknamed 'Cosmic Treasure Chest,' stitches together 1,185 exposures of the Virgo Cluster, our nearest major collection of galaxies, some 55 million light-years away. But the Rubin Observatory is about much more than producing pretty cosmic wallpaper. Its unprecedented scale gives it the ability to search for answers to grand questions about space science. The NSF notes that Rubin will gather more optical data in its first year than all previous ground telescopes combined, turning the messy, ever-changing sky into a searchable movie. As I've written before, the world has made great strides in planetary defense: Our ability to detect and eventually deflect asteroids that could be on a collision course with Earth. Rubin has already begun paying dividends toward that goal. In a mere 10 hours of engineering data, its detection software identified 2,104 brand-new asteroids — including seven near-Earth objects, heavenly bodies whose orbit will bring them near-ish our planet. That haul came from just a thumbnail-sized patch of sky; once Rubin begins its nightly scan of the whole Southern Hemisphere, it's projected to catalog over 5 million asteroids and roughly 100,000 NEOs over the next decade, tripling today's inventory. That will help NASA finally reach its congressionally mandated target of identifying 90 percent of the 25,000 city-killer-class NEOs (those over 140 meters) estimated to be out there. How powerful is Rubin's eye? 'It took 225 years of astronomical observations to detect the first 1.5 million asteroids,' Jake Kurlander, a grad student astronomer at the University of Washington, told 'Rubin will double that number in less than a year.' And the images that Rubin captures will go out to the entire world. Its Skyviewer app will allow anyone to zoom in and out of the corners of space that catch Rubin's eye, including celestial objects so new that most of them don't have names. Looking at the app gives you a sense of what it must have been like to be one of the first human beings, gazing up at a sky filled with wonder and mystery. It might seem strange to highlight a telescope at a moment when the world feels as if it is literally on fire. But the Vera Rubin Observatory isn't just a triumph of international scientific engineering, or an unparalleled window on the universe. It is the ultimate perspective provider. If you open the Virgo image and zoom all the way out, Earth's orbit would be smaller than a single pixel. Yet that same pixel is where thousands of engineers, coders, machinists, and scientists quietly spent a decade building an eye that can watch the rest of the universe breathe, and then share those images with all of their fellow humans. Seeing Rubin's images brought to mind the lines of Walt Whitman's 'When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer.' I wander'd off by myself, In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars. On days when life on our little world feels chaotic, Rubin's first-light view offers a valuable reminder: We're just one tiny part in a tapestry of 10 million galaxies, looking up from our planet at the endless stars. A version of this story originally appeared in the Good News newsletter. Sign up here!
Yahoo
28-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
First Images From the World's Largest Camera Are Paving the Future of Astronomy
First Images From the World's Largest Camera Are Paving the Future of Astronomy originally appeared on L.A. Mag. On June 23rd, over 300 public and private Watch Parties tuned in to get a glimpse of the First Look images from Rubin Observatory, according to a Rubin Observatory press release. The reason? This observatory features the world's largest ever camera, an 8.4-meter telescope, and is at the forefront of the current astronomy works so well for three primary reasons: its scope, the detail of the images, and the time it takes to capture said images. For example, the image taken of the Trifid and Lagoon Nebulae utilized two trillion pixels of data and a combination of 678 exposures to create a 5-gigapixel image. Taken in just under 7.2 hours, this stunning image layers the large amount of different exposures to cast the image into enormous detail. Coupled with the extremely wide range of the camera, viewers can now see the Trifid and Lagoon Nebulae in striking and comprehensive first images are the product of over two decades of work from a global team, according to Željko Ivezić, Director of Rubin Observatory Construction. The facility, jointly funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science and the U.S. National Science Foundation, was built at the summit of Cerro Pachón in Chile, where the high elevation, dry air, and dark skies provide an ideal location for astronomical observations. According to Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the observatory 'demonstrates that the United States remains at the forefront of international basic science and highlights the remarkable achievements we get when the many parts of the national research enterprise work together.' Brian Stone, performing the duties of NSF director, details these 'remarkable achievements' by stating how Rubin will 'capture more information about our Universe than all optical telescopes throughout history combined,' including information about dark matter and dark observatory's relationship with dark matter is deeply embedded within the observatory's history, specifically concerning its namesake. The observatory is named after Vera C. Rubin, a pioneering U.S. astronomer who found conclusive evidence for dark matter. Dark matter and dark energy are important because they are key players in what is facilitating our universe's expansion, according to NASA. So what's next for the Vera Rubin Observatory? According to CNN, the observatory will make the first scientific observations of the Southern Hemisphere (also known as 'first light') on July 4th. Looking ahead, over the next ten years, the observatory will take 1000 images of the Southern Hemisphere every night as part of the observatory's primary mission to meticulously capture the universe's changes: the Legacy Survey of Space and Time. These images will not only be important for astronomical discoveries, but also for planetary defense, as having more precise images will allow us to better observe and predict asteroids that may potentially impact the Moon or the Earth. Additionally, the observatory seeks to bring cutting-edge astronomical data and images to the general public through the interactive, user-friendly SkyViewer app. The app offers both guided and free-form exploration of select Rubin images as well as an interactive sonification that encourages users to experience the wonder of the cosmos through an endless soundscape. This story was originally reported by L.A. Mag on Jun 27, 2025, where it first appeared.
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Vera Rubin Observatory zooms into deep space
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Astronomers use powerful telescopes, often housed at observatories, to peer into the farthest depths of our universe. To do this successfully, observatories often have to be placed at high elevations, away from light pollution, which is why the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Cerro Pachón in Chile sits at 5,200 feet (1,600 meters) above sea level. From their high perches, these observatories take clearer photos of our universe, providing more details about other galaxies, asteroids, and other structures. Recently, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory revealed its first images of our universe, using the LSST camera (LSSTCam), the world's largest digital camera ever constructed. At roughly the size of a compact car, the LSST camera works with the 8.4-meter Simonyi Survey Telescope to photograph hard-to-see images. These images could help reveal the presence of dark matter, which makes up 85% of our universe but is essentially invisible. The LSST camera covers a space around the size of 45 full moons in our sky in just one image. In the image release, one of the photographs shared with the public was this picture of the Virgo cluster, revealing two bright spiral galaxies and three merging galaxies, along with many stars. The Virgo cluster is around 53.8 million light-years from Earth. In just this one image, there are estimated to be around 10 million galaxies! Incredibly, this is only 0.05% of the number of around 20 billion galaxies that Rubin will have imaged by the end of its 10-year mission, called the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), which will investigate dark energy and dark matter in the universe. Presenting these images to the world, the researchers mentioned that this image of the Virgo cluster was created by projecting data onto the image to help give it a three-dimensional look. It is one of many pictures that will continue to be shared as the Rubin Observatory scans the skies at speeds 10 to 100 times faster than similar sized telescopes. With this innovation, images like the Virgo cluster are revealing more intricate structures in our universe, and they're only the beginning of what's to come. You can read more about the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and galaxy clusters as astronomers continue to study our universe.
