{"id":17110,"date":"2025-06-23T21:32:01","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T13:32:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/the-rubin-observatory-makes-its-debut-and-the-discoveries-have-already-begun\/"},"modified":"2025-06-23T21:32:01","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T13:32:01","slug":"the-rubin-observatory-makes-its-debut-and-the-discoveries-have-already-begun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/the-rubin-observatory-makes-its-debut-and-the-discoveries-have-already-begun\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rubin Observatory makes its debut \u2014 and the discoveries have already begun"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After more than 20 years of planning and construction, astronomers celebrated the release of the first images from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory today \u2014 and also registered hundreds of the first discoveries from the world\u2019s newest eye on the sky.<\/p>\n<p>University of Washington astronomer Mario Juric, a member of the Rubin team and director of UW\u2019s DiRAC Institute, said that discovery data for 2,104 previously undetected small bodies in the solar system were reported to the Minor Planet Center early today. <\/p>\n<p>Those small bodies include 2,015 main-belt asteroids, nine trans-Neptunian objects and seven near-Earth objects. (But don\u2019t worry: None of those NEOs has a chance of hitting Earth anytime soon.)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe over 2,100 asteroids we discovered are impressive, but just a drop in the bucket relative to what\u2019s coming. We\u2019ll have moments where we find over 20,000 in a single <em>night<\/em>, more than the entire world presently finds in a year,\u201d Juric told GeekWire in an email.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy sometime next year Rubin will double the number of known asteroids, then continue to discover hundreds of new comets, the remaining few dwarf planets, and maybe even a new planet in our solar system,\u201d he said. \u201cThis will be the most comprehensive census of our planetary home in history.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During today\u2019s \u201cFirst Look\u201d briefing in Washington, D.C., astronomers explained the science behind their scan for asteroids \u2014 and showed off eye-pleasing imagery that included a colorful wide-angle view of the Trifid and Lagoon nebulas in the constellation Sagittarius, galactic closeups gleaned from the observatory\u2019s survey of the Virgo Cluster, and a zooming video scan of the same region of the sky.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Virgo image is an exquisite, multi-color, deep look into millions of stars and galaxies. But to an astronomer, the most impressive aspect of it is that it took just 10 hours of observing to make, over three times faster than anything we had before,\u201d Juric said. \u201cOver the years to come, Rubin will do this for the entire southern sky, an area 800 times larger than this first look.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Check out these videos highlighting Rubin\u2019s high-resolution views:<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Cosmic Treasure Chest - VIDEO - EN\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Gitit3LwQ20?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" class=\"wp-element-caption\">Made from more than 1,100 images captured by the Rubin Observatory, this video begins with a close-up of two galaxies, then zooms out to reveal about 10 million galaxies. (Credit: NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Trifid and Lagoon Nebulae - VIDEO - EN\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MIJfPOGnDFg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" class=\"wp-element-caption\">Made from more than 678 exposures taken by Rubin Observatory in just over seven hours of observing time, this video explores details in the region containing the Trifid nebula (top) and the Lagoon nebula, which are several thousand light-years away from Earth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>UW astronomer \u017deljko Ivezi\u0107, the director of Rubin construction, said the observatory\u2019s Simonyi Survey Telescope and LSST Camera are designed to create high-resolution, color-coded maps of the night sky at a rate that\u2019s 10 to 100 times faster than previously possible. \u201cThis is like comparing the speed of your car to the speed of an airplane,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>With major funding from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy\u2019s Office of Science, the Rubin Telescope was built on a mountaintop in Chile \u2014 which is one of the world\u2019s prime spots for astronomical observations, thanks to its dry air and dark skies.<\/p>\n<p>The construction cost has been estimated at $800 million, which includes tens of millions of dollars that were covered by private contributions from the likes of Microsoft tech pioneers Bill Gates and Charles Simonyi. In recognition of Simonyi\u2019s $20 million donation, the observatory\u2019s 8.4-meter (28-foot) telescope was named after his family. <\/p>\n<p>The observatory itself was named after the late astronomer Vera Rubin, who analyzed the rotation rate of galaxies to come up with evidence for the existence of dark matter \u2014 a mysterious, invisible kind of stuff that makes up more of the universe\u2019s content than the matter we can see.<\/p>\n<p>Fittingly, the Rubin Observatory is expected to shed new light on the nature of dark matter and an equally mysterious phenomenon called dark energy, which appears to be driving the accelerating expansion of the universe. Rubin will serve as an early warning system for transient cosmic events such as supernova explosions and gamma-ray bursts. And based on computer modeling, the observatory is expected to discover more than 5 million asteroids and other objects in our solar system over the course of its 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time, or LSST.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"A Swarm of New Asteroids - VIDEO - EN\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DTuq-vBsDJE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" class=\"wp-element-caption\">In about 10 hours of observations, the Rubin Observatory discovered 2,104 never-before-seen asteroids and other small bodies in our solar system. This video shows how asteroids were tracked in successive Rubin images. (Credit: NSF\u2013DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Ivezi\u0107 said Rubin stands a good chance of detecting a distant hypothetical world that\u2019s been dubbed Planet Nine, if it exists. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will see way beyond the orbits where Pluto and other Kuiper Belt objects are found,\u201d he said. \u201cIt depends on the object size, but we could see Pluto even if it were at a 10 times larger distance, roughly speaking.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The observatory could also spot interstellar objects such as \u2018Oumuamua and Borisov, the two only known such objects discovered to date. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is very hard to predict how many we would discover, because we don\u2019t understand the population,\u201d Ivezi\u0107 said. \u201cIt\u2019s only two objects. But by simple scaling arguments, we do expect 10, maybe 20, somewhere in there. So we will be an extremely powerful solar system survey.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The speed and breadth of Rubin\u2019s observations will be the keys to its discoveries. The LSST Camera is regarded as the world\u2019s largest digital camera, capable of capturing 3,200-megapixel images at a rapid-fire pace. Each image spans an area equivalent to about 45 full moons. About 20 trillion bytes of astronomical data are expected to be produced on a nightly basis and analyzed with the aid of sophisticated computer tools \u2014 including tools developed by the DiRAC Institute.<\/p>\n<p>For the next few months, the Rubin team will be fine-tuning the operation of the observatory\u2019s systems and getting ready for the formal start of the Legacy Survey of Space and Time. During the decade ahead, Rubin\u2019s images will cover the full stretch of sky visible from the Southern Hemisphere every three or four nights, creating time-lapse movies of the changing cosmos. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe movie has started, the camera is running,\u201d Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a video clip that was played during today\u2019s briefing.<\/p>\n<p>Astronomers will be able to detect asteroids and other small bodies in the solar system by looking for telltale streaks of motion that show up in successive images of the same stretch of sky. And the data will be made available to citizen scientists as well as the professionals. The Rubin team has created a Skyviewer app that lets you zoom in or zoom out on the observatory\u2019s images. Detailed data will also be shared through Zooniverse for a variety of projects aimed at spotting supernovas, hunting for asteroids and trans-Neptunian objects, and classifying galaxies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you zoom in and you look at one of the little fuzzy galaxies in there, you might be the first person to be paying attention to that fuzzy blob,\u201d said Clare Higgs, an astronomy outreach specialist on the Rubin education team. \u201cYou can look at other catalogs online. lf there\u2019s information about that [galaxy], they\u2019ll be in there, but there\u2019ll be a lot of things in there for which there is no name, no catalog yet, until all the amazing science of Rubin comes in.\u201d <\/p>\n<p><strong>The University of Washington, one of the original partners in the project, is planning a presentation about the Rubin Observatory at 7 p.m. PT Thursday at Kane Hall on the Seattle campus. Check out UW\u2019s website for further information and to register. In the meantime, feast your eyes on these images:<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full-width\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"630\" height=\"386\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/250623-rubin-virgo2-630x386.jpg\" alt=\"Rubin Observatory view of Virgo Cluster\" class=\"wp-image-878432\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/250623-rubin-virgo2-630x386.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/250623-rubin-virgo2-1260x772.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/250623-rubin-virgo2-768x470.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/250623-rubin-virgo2-1536x941.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/250623-rubin-virgo2-2048x1254.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" class=\"wp-element-caption\">This image shows a small section of the Rubin Observatory\u2019s view of the Virgo Cluster, including two spiral galaxies at lower right, three merging galaxies at upper right, several groups of distant galaxies and many stars in our own Milky Way galaxy. Click on the image for a larger version. (Credit: NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full-width is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"630\" height=\"1007\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/250621-rubin-virgo1-630x1007.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-878446\" style=\"width:630px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/250621-rubin-virgo1-630x1007.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/250621-rubin-virgo1-788x1260.jpg 788w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/250621-rubin-virgo1-768x1227.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/250621-rubin-virgo1-961x1536.jpg 961w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/250621-rubin-virgo1-1281x2048.jpg 1281w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" class=\"wp-element-caption\">This image shows a small section of the Rubin Observatory\u2019s total view of the Virgo Cluster. Bright stars in the Milky Way galaxy shine in the foreground, and many distant galaxies are in the background. Click on the image for a larger version. (Credit: NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em>This is an updated version of a report first published on June 22.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After more than 20 years of planning and construction, astronomers celebrated the release of the first images from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory today \u2014 and also registered hundreds of the first discoveries from the world\u2019s newest eye on the sky. University of Washington astronomer Mario Juric, a member of the Rubin team and director [&hellip;]<\/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":[1661,4369],"class_list":["post-17110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-astronomy","tag-vera-rubin-observatory"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17110"}],"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=17110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17110\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}