Latest news with #RubinObs
GMA Network
13 hours ago
- Science
- GMA Network
Chile observatory captures the universe with 3,200-megapixel camera
Distant galaxies are seen in an image produced by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, on Pachon Hill, Coquimbo Region, Chile, June 18, 2025. RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/NSF/DOE/AURA/Handout via REUTERS SANTIAGO - Chile's Vera C. Rubin Observatory, which boasts the world's largest digital camera, has begun displaying its first images of the cosmos, allowing astronomers to figure out how the solar system formed and even whether an asteroid poses a threat to Earth. Located on Pachon Hill in the northern region of Coquimbo, the 8.4-meter (27-1/2-foot) telescope has a 3,200-megapixel camera feeding a powerful data processing system. "It's really going to change and challenge the way people work with their data," said William O'Mullane, a project manager focused on data at Vera Rubin. The observatory detected over 2,100 previously unseen asteroids in 10 hours of observations, focusing on a small area of the visible sky. Its ground-based and space-based peers discover in total some 20,000 asteroids a year. O'Mullane said the observatory would allow astronomers to collect huge amounts of data quickly and make unexpected finds. "Rather than the usual couple of observations and writing an (academic) paper. No, I'll give you a million galaxies. I'll give you a million stars or a billion even, because we have them: 20 billion galaxy measurements," he said. The center is named after American astronomer Vera C. Rubin, a pioneer in finding conclusive evidence of the existence of large amounts of invisible material known as dark matter. Each night, Rubin will take some 1,000 images of the southern hemisphere sky, letting it cover the entire southern sky every three or four nights. The darkest skies above the arid Atacama Desert make Chile one of the best places worldwide for astronomical observation. "The number of alerts the telescope will send every night is equivalent to the inboxes of 83,000 people. It's impossible for someone to look at that one by one," said astrophysicist Francisco Foster. "We're going to have to use artificial intelligence tools." — Reuters
Straits Times
14 hours ago
- Science
- Straits Times
Chile observatory captures the universe with 3,200-megapixel camera
The open star cluster Messier 21 is seen in an image produced by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, on Pachon Hill, Coquimbo Region, Chile June 12, 2025. RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/NSF/DOE/AURA/Handout via REUTERS Globular cluster NGC 6544 is seen in an image produced by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, on Pachon Hill, Coquimbo Region, Chile June 12, 2025. RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/NSF/DOE/AURA/Handout via REUTERS The Trifid Nebula is seen in an image produced by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, on Pachon Hill, Coquimbo Region, Chile June 12, 2025. RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/NSF/DOE/AURA/Handout via REUTERS Distant galaxies are seen in an image produced by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, on Pachon Hill, Coquimbo Region, Chile June 18, 2025. RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/NSF/DOE/AURA/Handout via REUTERS The Trifid and Lagoon Nebulae are seen in an image produced by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, on Pachon Hill, Coquimbo Region, Chile June 12, 2025. RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/NSF/DOE/AURA/Handout via REUTERS SANTIAGO - Chile's Vera C. Rubin Observatory, which boasts the world's largest digital camera, has begun displaying its first images of the cosmos, allowing astronomers to figure out how the solar system formed and even whether an asteroid poses a threat to Earth. Located on Pachon Hill in the northern region of Coquimbo, the 8.4-meter (27-1/2-foot) telescope has a 3,200-megapixel camera feeding a powerful data processing system. "It's really going to change and challenge the way people work with their data," said William O'Mullane, a project manager focused on data at Vera Rubin. The observatory detected over 2,100 previously unseen asteroids in 10 hours of observations, focusing on a small area of the visible sky. Its ground-based and space-based peers discover in total some 20,000 asteroids a year. O'Mullane said the observatory would allow astronomers to collect huge amounts of data quickly and make unexpected finds. "Rather than the usual couple of observations and writing an (academic) paper. No, I'll give you a million galaxies. I'll give you a million stars or a billion even, because we have them: 20 billion galaxy measurements," he said. The center is named after American astronomer Vera C. Rubin, a pioneer in finding conclusive evidence of the existence of large amounts of invisible material known as dark matter. Each night, Rubin will take some 1,000 images of the southern hemisphere sky, letting it cover the entire southern sky every three or four nights. The darkest skies above the arid Atacama Desert make Chile one of the best places worldwide for astronomical observation. "The number of alerts the telescope will send every night is equivalent to the inboxes of 83,000 people. It's impossible for someone to look at that one by one," said astrophysicist Francisco Foster. "We're going to have to use artificial intelligence tools." REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
New York Post
4 days ago
- Science
- New York Post
Largest camera ever built captures eye-popping images of millions of distant stars and galaxies
The first images from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory showed off a breathtaking preview of its capabilities — capturing millions of stars and galaxies light-years from Earth, along with thousands of never-before-seen asteroids. The observatory — perched atop Cerro Pachón in the Chilean Andes Mountains — will train its high-powered 27.5-foot Simonyi Survey Telescope at the night sky over the next decade to give astronomers an unprecedented look at the cosmos. 3 The approximately $810 million Vera C. Rubin observatory took nearly two decades to complete. RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/NSF/DOE/AURA/T. Matsopoulos Advertisement The newly released images were compiled from around 10 hours of test observations, showing swirling clouds of pink and golden dust that make up the Trifid nebula and a large cluster of galaxies known as the Virgo cluster — both located thousands of light-years away. In all, the video made from the first 1,100 test images shows around 10 million distant galaxies in the camera's wide-view lens, a tiny fraction of the approximately 20 billion galaxies the Rubin observatory is hoping to capture over the course of its work. 'NSF-DOE Rubin Observatory will capture more information about our universe than all optical telescopes throughout history combined,' National Science Foundation Chief of Staff Brian Stone told CNN. Advertisement The test images also uncovered 2,104 asteroids that had never before been seen in our solar system, including seven 'near-Earth' asteroids — those within about 30 million miles of Earth's orbit. Scientists at the observatory said none of them pose any threat to our planet. Images of the asteroids are expected to be shared with the public on Monday. Typical telescopes based in space or on the ground are capable of spying around 20,000 asteroids each year, while the Rubin Observatory is expected to discover millions of the rocky space objects in just the next two years alone, according to the US National Science Foundation, which funded the observatory along with the US Department of Energy. Advertisement 3 First images included the Trifid and Lagoon nebulas, both thousands of light-years from Earth. AP The primary objective of the $810 million observatory, which took approximately 20 years to build, is to create an ultra-high-definition movie of the images it captures over the next 10 years known as the Legacy Survey of Space and Time. The resulting time-lapse compilation will show details like comets and asteroids zooming by, exploding stars and distant galaxies transforming over time. 3 Another image captured showed a large cluster of galaxies called the Virgo cluster, representing just a fraction of the 20 billion galaxies the observatory is expected to image over the next 10 years. AP Advertisement '[Rubin] will enable us to explore galaxies, stars in the Milky Way, objects in the solar system, and all in a truly new way. Since we take images of the night sky so quickly and so often, (it) will detect millions of changing objects literally every night,' Aaron Roodman, a professor of particle physics and astrophysics at Stanford University, told the outlet. The observatory's unique capabilities will help other powerful telescopes direct their focus, acting as a 'discovery machine' to discover other interesting areas of the universe that warrant a closer look. The telescope's namesake, Vera C. Rubin, is considered one of the most influential female astronomers of all time. She is credited with providing some of the first evidence proving the existence of dark matter, the mysterious substance that makes up much of our universe.
