Latest news with #ZeljkoIvezic
Korea Herald
3 hours ago
- Science
- Korea Herald
Vera Rubin observatory reveals stunning first images
WASHINGTON (AFP) — Breathtaking stellar nurseries, a sprawling stretch of cosmos teeming with millions of galaxies, and thousands of newly discovered asteroids were revealed Monday in the first deep space images captured by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile. More than two decades in the making, the $800 million US-funded telescope sits atop Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One debut image is a composite of 678 exposures taken over seven hours, capturing the Trifid and Lagoon Nebulae — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. It reveals these birth places of stars in unprecedented detail, with previously faint or invisible features now clearly visible. Another, dubbed "The Cosmic Treasure Chest," shows the universe "teeming with stars and galaxies — the seemingly empty black pockets of space between stars in the night sky when you look at it with unaided eyes, are transformed here into these glittering tapestries," said Zeljko Ivezic, director of Rubin construction. Spiral, elliptical, and clustered galaxies appear in vivid reds, blues, and oranges. These colors reveal key details such as distance and size with unmatched precision, helping scientists better understand the universe's expansion history. The colors don't directly match what the naked eye would see, explained scientist Federica Bianco, since the telescope captures a far broader range of wavelengths. Instead, they are representational: infrared is mapped to red to represent cooler objects, while ultraviolet is mapped to blue and indicates warmer ones. 10-year flagship project An interactive version of the image is now available on the Rubin Observatory's website. "One of the things that is very fun is that if you zoom in and you look at one of the fuzzy galaxies there, you might be the first person to be paying attention to that fuzzy blob," said Clare Higgs, education and public outreach science lead. The observatory features an advanced 8.4-meter telescope and the largest digital camera ever built, supported by a powerful data system transferring 20 terabytes each night. Roughly the size of a car, the camera captures 3,200-megapixel images. It would take 400 ultra-high-definition televisions stacked together to view a single Rubin image at full resolution. Later this year, the observatory will launch its flagship project, the Legacy Survey of Space and Time. Over the next decade, it will scan the night sky nightly, detecting even the subtlest changes with unmatched precision. Named after pioneering American astronomer Vera C. Rubin — whose research provided the first conclusive evidence for dark matter — the observatory continues her legacy by making dark matter a central focus of its mission. Dark energy, an equally mysterious and immensely powerful force, is believed to drive the accelerating expansion of the universe. Together, dark matter and dark energy are thought to make up 95 percent of the cosmos, yet their true nature remains unknown. "By observing up to 20 billion galaxies, we'll study how light from those distant galaxies has reached us — and nearly every galaxy's light has been bent by the gravitational interaction of dark matter that pervades the universe," said scientist Aaron Roodman. This, he added, will help illuminate these cosmic mysteries. A joint initiative of the US National Science Foundation and Department of Energy, the observatory is also considered one of the most powerful tools ever built for planetary defense. In just 10 hours of observation, Rubin discovered 2,104 previously unknown asteroids in our solar system, including seven near-Earth objects — none of which pose a threat. All other ground- and space-based observatories combined discover about 20,000 new asteroids per year. Chilean pride Chile hosts telescopes from more than 30 countries, including some of the most advanced astronomical instruments in the world — among them the ALMA Observatory, the most powerful radio telescope on Earth. Cerro Tololo Observatory helped achieve the landmark discovery of the universe's accelerating expansion — a breakthrough that earned the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics. Another major project, the Extremely Large Telescope, is slated to begin operations in 2027 and promises to probe previously unreachable cosmic distances.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
'Staggering' first images from Vera C. Rubin Observatory show 10 million galaxies — and billions more are on the way
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. 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. RELATED STORIES —It's Official: Vera Rubin Observatory Named to Honor Dark Matter Scientist —Could scientists stop a 'planet killer' asteroid from hitting Earth? —'Everything we found shattered our expectations': Archaeologists discover 1st astronomical observatory from ancient Egypt 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.
Telegraph
10 hours ago
- Science
- Telegraph
World's biggest telescope finds 2,000 asteroids in a week
The world's largest digital camera telescope has discovered 2,000 new asteroids, including seven potentially hazardous space rocks that will pass close to Earth. The Vera C Rubin Observatory in Chile released the first images from its 3,200 megapixel camera, which produces images so large they are impossible to see in detail with the human eye. In the first few days of sky scanning, the telescope spotted 2,104 unknown asteroids, including a handful of 'near-earth objects' (NEOs) which will pass within 30 million miles of Earth's orbit. Scientists currently know of around one million asteroids, but the observatory expects to find another five million in the next few years, including tens of thousands of NEOs. 'Seven near-earth objects' Zeljko Ivezic, the deputy director of the observatory, said: 'There are so many of them, just in a few nights of data, and in just one tiny region. 'We have 2,000 in this few nights of data, and there are seven near-earth objects that have orbits that cross Earth's orbit. None of them is in a position to strike Earth, don't worry. 'We'll get tens of thousands more near-earth objects and will discover about five million new asteroids during the next few years. This is five times more than all the astronomers in the world discovered in the last 200 years, since the discovery of the first asteroid. 'So because of this rapid development of technology today, we can outdo all these two centuries of effort in just a couple of years.' NEOs are closely monitored to make sure they do not change course and come perilously close to Earth. In January the European Space Agency Planetary Defence Office announced that asteroid 2024 YR4 had a small chance of impacting Earth in 2032. The estimate has since been downgraded, but it may still hit the Moon. The observatory is expected to detect 90 per cent of all potentially hazardous asteroids over 460 feet wide, and is likely to solve the mystery of Planet Nine, which astronomers believe may be lurking in the depths of our solar system. The Rubin Observatory also released a striking mosaic of the glowing pink Trifid and Lagoon nebulae in the Sagittarius constellation where new stars are forming in huge clouds of gas and dust. An image of the giant elliptical galaxy Messier 49, usually seen as a bright spot on a dark background, revealed a sky teeming with brightly coloured stars and galaxies. Demystify dark matter The new images show how galaxies cluster together, and experts are hoping the unprecedented detail will help uncover the secrets of dark matter and dark energy – the two most mysterious forces in the universe. The observatory is named after Vera Rubin, the American astrophysicist who calculated that galaxies must contain about ten times as much 'dark' mass, otherwise they would fly apart. She proposed that at least ninety percent of the mass in the universe is invisible and unidentified. The observatory, which has been described as the 'greatest astronomical discovery machine ever built' is located in the Andes on the top of Cerro Pachón in Chile and has taken two decades to build. Its main goal is to produce a huge, ultra-high-definition movie of the universe by scanning the whole sky over 10 years, called the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). The digital camera in the telescope is so big that it would need 400 high-definition television screens to display a single image. When complete, the full survey is expected to rack up 500 petabytes of data – the same storage as half-a-million 4K Hollywood films. Britain to process 1.5m images Prof Hiranya Peiris from Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy, part of the LSST Dark Energy Science Collaboration, said: 'We will be looking at the universe in a way that we have never done before, and this exploration is bound to throw up surprises that we never imagined.' Britain will also host one of three international data facilities which will process around 1.5 million images, capturing around 10 billion stars and galaxies. Prof Bob Mann, the LSST:UK Project Leader from the University of Edinburgh, said: 'UK researchers have been contributing to the scientific and technical preparation for the Rubin LSST for more than ten years. 'These exciting First Look images show that everything is working well and reassure us that we have a decade's worth of wonderful data coming our way, with which UK astronomers will do great science.' Prof Vasily Belokurov from Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy added: 'A new era of galactic archaeology is beginning.'
CBC
11 hours ago
- Science
- CBC
New giant telescope reveals its 1st images of our universe
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, which houses a telescope with the largest digital camera ever built, has revealed its first images. The telescope sits atop Cerro Pachón in Chile, under some of the most pristine skies in the world. It houses the 8.4-metre Simonyi Survey Telescope with the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) camera, and will take images of the skies in the southern hemisphere for the next 10 years. It is able to cover the entire night sky every few nights. Every night, it will produce a whopping 20 terrabytes of data with its 3,200-megapixel camera. In order to show an image at full size, you'd need 400 ultra high-definition televisions. "The entire image is 50 times larger than what we are seeing here on screen," Zeljko Ivezic, director of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, said during a news conference. The size of the images released Monday is just a fraction of the actual image the telescope has taken, said Ivezic. Renée Hložek, an associate professor at the Dunlap Institute and the David A. Dunlap department for astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Toronto, is also on the dark energy working group at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. She is excited about what the new telescope will reveal about the expansion of the universe. "It's game-changing," she said of the observatory. "I've been waiting for this data my entire academic career." Unravelling the mysteries of the universe One of the goals of this novel telescope is to help astronomers better understand dark matter and dark energy, both of which are invisible. Scientists know they exist because of how they interact in our universe. We only see roughly five per cent of what exists in our universe. Dark energy — which is accelerating the expansion of the universe — makes up about 70 per cent. Astronomers use special stars to measure the distances of galaxies. That in turn helps astronomers calculate the expansion of the universe. Hložek said that at the moment there are roughly 10,000 of these stars, but Rubin will reveal 500,000. "So are we going to be able to really pin down the nature of this cosmic acceleration in a way we've never done before?" Hložek said. WATCH | See the Trifid and Lagoon nebulas: See the Trifid and Lagoon nebulas 2 hours ago Duration 0:59 Then there's dark matter, which is believed to make up roughly 25 per cent of the universe. The term "dark matter" was coined in the 1930s by astronomer Fritz Zwicky while observing the Coma galaxy cluster, which contains roughly 1,000 galaxies. He couldn't explain why the galaxies in the cluster were moving faster than they should be using the theories at the time. Then in the 1970s, astronomer Vera Rubin confirmed the existence of dark matter after studying how individual galaxies rotated. Under the laws of physics, stars at the outer rim of galaxies should be moving slower than the ones near the centre, but instead they are rotating much faster. Rubin determined that something was holding together the stars in galaxies, preventing them from flying apart: dark matter. The Rubin Observatory will also map the Milky Way, look for asteroids and film the largest astronomical movie ever made. WATCH | See a swarm of newly discovered asteroids: See a swarm of new asteroids 2 hours ago Duration 0:58 The first-look data that was released Monday also showed the discovery of more than 2,000 asteroids. But rest assured that none of them are on a collision course with Earth, Ivezics said. "There were no surprises," he said, regarding the number of asteroids discovered. All the images and data are available to astronomers around the world, as well as the general public, said Clare Hicks, astronomy outreach specialist at the Rubin Observatory. There will also be citizen science projects, where the public can contribute to new discoveries. As for what astronomers hope to find with this powerful telescope, Ivezics said: "We'll be looking for unknown unknowns." The astronomers at the observatory are relieved that it is finally up and running after decades of planning and construction. "It's great," said Sandrine Thomas, telescope and site project scientist at the observatory. "It's really an amazing achievement."
