{"id":17107,"date":"2025-06-27T17:55:37","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T09:55:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/university-of-washington-celebrates-rubin-observatorys-debut-and-looks-ahead\/"},"modified":"2025-06-27T17:55:37","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T09:55:37","slug":"university-of-washington-celebrates-rubin-observatorys-debut-and-looks-ahead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/university-of-washington-celebrates-rubin-observatorys-debut-and-looks-ahead\/","title":{"rendered":"University of Washington celebrates Rubin Observatory\u2019s debut \u2014 and looks ahead"},"content":{"rendered":"
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University of Washington astronomer Zeljko Ivezic talks about the Rubin Observatory \u2014 a project in which he played a leading role \u2014 with an image of the facility displayed behind him. (GeekWire Photo \/ Alan Boyle)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s been more than two decades since the University of Washington helped kick off the effort to get the Vera C. Rubin Observatory built in Chile \u2014 and now that it\u2019s finished, UW astronomers are gearing up to get in on the first decade of discoveries.<\/p>\n

The university\u2019s role in the past, present and future of the Rubin Observatory and its 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time, or LSST, literally took center stage in front of a packed house at UW\u2019s Kane Hall on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

UW astronomer Zeljko Ivezic, who served as director of Rubin construction and is shifting his focus to his role as head of science operations for LSST, recalled the night of April 15, when Rubin\u2019s first test images came in for fine tuning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were all so happy, and we are still happy,\u201d he said. \u201cWe had been dreaming about this night for two decades, and it finally arrived. And not only that, we quickly obtained beautiful data, but also we continued to do so, and every new image was better and better. The observatory is performing beyond all our expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ivezic showed off the images of swirling galaxies and colorful nebulas that he first unveiled earlier in the week at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. And he talked up an online tool called Skyviewer that allows users to click around the observatory\u2019s 3,200-megapixel images and zoom in on details.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an easy-to-use app,\u201d he told the audience. \u201cWhen you go home tonight, then you can spend the next few hours just going around. Turn off the light in your room and then look at your screen, and it will be fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n

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University of Washington Zeljko Ivezic shows off his Rubin Observatory necktie and matching nail polish. The tie is on sale via the Startorialist website. (GeekWire Photo \/ Alan Boyle)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The University of Washington\u2019s involvement in the Rubin Observatory goes back to the early 2000s, when astronomers began considering how a next-generation sky survey might be accomplished. <\/p>\n

In its early years, the project was known as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (which set the precedent for the LSST acronym). UW was one of four founding partners of the LSST Corporation, an entity that was set up to get the project started. (That nonprofit group, which was subsequently renamed the LSST Discovery Alliance, now has 40 member institutions.)<\/p>\n

In 2008, the project got a huge boost from Microsoft billionaires Bill Gates and Charles Simonyi \u2014 who donated $10 million and $20 million, respectively, to support early work on the telescope\u2019s 8.4-meter-wide (28-foot-wide) mirror.<\/p>\n

As the years went on, support for the project grew, fueled by a high rating in the National Research Council\u2019s 2010 Decadal Survey. Eventually, the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy\u2019s Office of Science allocated hundreds of millions of dollars for building the observatory in Chile, where dry air and dark skies made for optimal viewing conditions.<\/p>\n

In 2019, the observatory was officially named in honor of astronomer Vera Rubin, who analyzed galactic rotation rates to nail down the first convincing evidence for the existence of dark matter. The survey telescope, meanwhile, was named after Simonyi\u2019s family in recognition of his early gift.<\/p>\n

Today, UW\u2019s Rubin Observatory team consists of about 75 faculty members and graduate students, plus scores of undergraduates. University of Washington astronomer Mario Juric, the team\u2019s principal investigator, noted that UW played an essential role in getting the observatory up and running.<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of this would be possible without the Rubin team right here at UW,\u201d he told Thursday night\u2019s audience.<\/p>\n

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Members of the University of Washington\u2019s team for the Rubin Observatory\u2019s Legacy Survey of Space and Time pose for a group picture after a presentation at UW\u2019s Kane Hall. (GeekWire Photo \/ Alan Boyle)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That essential role will continue into the next decade. In partnership with Princeton University, UW\u2019s team is responsible for the software that processes the trillions of bytes of image data that are generated by the observatory on a nightly basis. That work meshes with the leading roles in Rubin operations that are performed by the National Science Foundation\u2019s NOIRLab and the Department of Energy\u2019s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re here to figure out how to build algorithms to get the most out of data, how to make the software work as well as it can,\u201d Juric told GeekWire.<\/p>\n

Andrew Connolly, another UW astronomer who is the director of the university\u2019s eScience Institute, said the university\u2019s researchers are relying on machine learning and other artificial intelligence strategies \u201cto accelerate our discoveries.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWe build AI that allows us to study the variability in time series data. We build new tools at U Dub to search for the signatures of a distant planet in the outskirts of our solar system,\u201d he said. \u201cWe even use AI to improve the image quality and the sharpness of the images that you see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Astronomers expect the data from Rubin to reveal millions of previously undetected asteroids in our own solar system, shed light on the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy, track phenomena including gamma-ray bursts and supernovas, and capture images of billions of galaxies repeatedly over the coming decade.<\/p>\n

James Davenport \u2014 who is the newly named director of the university\u2019s DiRAC Institute, taking a handoff from Juric \u2014 said it\u2019s going to be an exciting 10 years. \u201cWe are going to discover things we don\u2019t expect,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

University of Washington astronomer Zeljko Ivezic talks about the Rubin Observatory \u2014 a project in which he played a leading role \u2014 with an image of the facility displayed behind him. (GeekWire Photo \/ Alan Boyle) It\u2019s been more than two decades since the University of Washington helped kick off the effort to get the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1661,4366,4368,4369],"class_list":["post-17107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-astronomy","tag-dirac-institute","tag-university-of-washington","tag-vera-rubin-observatory"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17107"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17107\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}