Six things to know about Rubin

1. Rubin Observatory gives us a fundamentally new way of looking at the sky.

NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory is a brand new astronomy and astrophysics facility under construction on Cerro Pachón in Chile, with first light expected in 2025. It’s named after astronomer Vera Rubin, who provided the first convincing evidence for the existence of dark matter. Rubin Observatory is jointly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science (DOE/SC). The 8.4-meter Simonyi Survey Telescope at Rubin Observatory, equipped with the LSST Camera — the largest digital camera in the world — will take detailed images of the southern hemisphere sky, covering the entire sky every few nights. Rubin Observatory will do this over and over for 10 years, creating a timelapse view of the Universe that’s unlike anything we’ve seen before.

Rubin Observatory’s 10-year survey is called the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST).

2. Rubin Observatory is packed with cutting-edge technology

Camera

• The 3200-megapixel camera at the heart of the telescope is the size of a small car, and has a field of view so wide it could hold 45 full moons (~10 sq deg).

• The images it will produce are so large that it would take hundreds of ultra-high-definition televisions to display one of them in full size, and so detailed they could resolve a golf ball from about 15 miles away.

Telescope

• Rubin’s Simonyi Survey Telescope has a unique 3-mirror design. The 8.4-meter primary mirror is actually two optical surfaces on one piece of glass. Combining them reduces engineering complexity and makes the telescope more compact, so it can rotate and settle quickly.

Data

• Rubin’s data management system will transfer and process 20 terabytes of astronomical data every night.

• Rubin’s software will automatically compare new images with previous ones and generate an alert for every change detected in the sky.

3. Rubin Observatory will unlock the mysteries of things that change over time in our Universe.

If it moves, flashes, or pulses, Rubin will catch it in action. As Rubin takes new images, its cutting-edge software automatically compares them to a template made from previous images. When a change is detected Rubin will issue an alert, available to anyone in the world.

With the help of these alerts, scientists will be able to observe exploding stars before they fade away, identify millions of faint asteroids and comets we’ve never seen before, and address all kinds of brand new mysteries.

Rubin will detect more changes in the sky than any other existing telescope — about 10 million per night.

4. Rubin Observatory will answer some of our biggest science questions.

Rubin is designed to make all kinds of science possible with a single survey. Rubin’s enormous data set will unlock mysteries in countless areas of astronomy and astrophysics, including helping scientists answer questions about dark matter and dark energy; the structure and evolution of the Milky Way; the formation of our Solar System; and black holes, exploding stars, or other things that go “bump” in the night.

The early days of Rubin’s 10-year survey will see an explosive period of discovery, as new asteroids, comets, and even visiting interstellar objects come into view for the first time. As the survey continues, Rubin’s accumulated data will also reveal more subtle phenomena, like weak gravitational lensing and the faint glow of light between galaxies in massive galaxy clusters, that provide researchers with clues about the overall structure and evolution of the Universe.

Rubin’s ten years of incredibly detailed images, covering the entire southern hemisphere sky, will give scientists a clearer, deeper, and bigger-picture view than they’ve ever had before.

5. Rubin Observatory will reveal questions we didn’t know to ask.

When Rubin begins operating in 2025, it’ll be like turning on a firehose of astronomical data.

Rubin’s combination of speed, a wide field of view, and a super-sensitive camera expand the limits of what a telescope can do. No other telescope has been able to detect both real-time changes in the sky and faint or distant objects at the same time on this enormous scale.

Scientists preparing for Rubin data have worked hard to predict the types of discoveries that will come from the 10-year LSST, but they’re ready — and excited — to be surprised too. Rubin’s never-before-seen capabilities will lead to unpredicted discoveries and reveal questions we didn’t even think to ask, helping us understand more about the Universe and our place in it.

1. Rubin Observatory gives us a fundamentally new way of looking at the sky.

Rubin Observatory is a brand new facility under construction on Cerro Pachón in Chile, and is scheduled to start science observations in 2025. The 8.4-meter telescope at Rubin Observatory, equipped with the highest-resolution digital camera in the world, will take enormous images of the southern hemisphere sky, over and over for 10 years, creating a timelapse view that will change the way we see the Universe.

This 10-year survey is called the Legacy Survey of Space and Time.

2. Rubin Observatory is packed with cutting-edge technology:

• The 3200-megapixel camera at the heart of the telescope is the size of a small car, and has a field of view the size of 40 full moons (9.6 sq deg). The images it will produce are so large that it would take 378 4K ultra-high-definition TV screens to display one of them in full size, and their resolution is so high that you could see a golf ball from about 15 miles away.

• Rubin’s unique 3-mirror design includes an 8.4-meter primary telescope mirror that’s actually two mirrors on one surface. The resulting compact shape of the telescope allows it to move quickly while collecting lots of light from space.

• Rubin’s data management system will transfer and process 20 terabytes of astronomical data every night. Rubin’s software will automatically compare new images with previous ones and generate an alert—within 60 seconds—for every change detected in the sky.

3. Rubin Observatory will reveal the mysteries of things that change over time in our Universe.

If it moves, flashes, or pulses, Rubin will catch it in action. Rubin’s fast-moving telescope can cover the entire visible sky every 3-4 nights, and its sensitive camera can capture objects that are very faint or far away.

Additionally, Rubin is equipped with software that automatically compares new images to previous images. If something has changed, Rubin will issue an alert—available to anyone in the world. With these alerts, researchers will be able to observe exploding stars before they fade away and identify millions of faint asteroids and comets we’ve never seen before.

Rubin will detect exponentially more changes in the sky than any other existing telescope—about 10 million per night.

4. Rubin Observatory will help answer some of our biggest science questions.

In ten years of observing, Rubin will produce a massive amount of data—more information than exists in all the books written in human history. This data will unlock mysteries in countless areas of astronomy and astrophysics, helping us answer questions about:

• dark matter and dark energy
• the structure and evolution of our home galaxy—the Milky Way
• the formation of our Solar System
• black holes, exploding stars, or other things that go “bump” in the night.

The early days of Rubin’s 10-year survey will see an explosive period of discovery, as objects like asteroids, comets, and even visiting interstellar objects come into view for the first time. As the survey continues, Rubin’s accumulated data will also reveal more subtle phenomena, like weak gravitational lensing and the faint glow of intracluster light, that provide researchers with clues about the overall structure and evolution of the Universe.

Rubin’s ten years of incredibly high-resolution images, covering the entire southern hemisphere sky, will give scientists a clearer and bigger-picture view than they’ve ever had before.

5. Rubin Observatory will reveal questions we didn’t know to ask.

When Rubin begins operating in 2025, it’ll be like turning on a firehose of astronomical data. Rubin’s combination of speed, a wide field of view, and a super-sensitive camera expand the limits of what a telescope can do. No other telescope has been able to detect both real-time changes in the sky and faint or distant objects at the same time, on this enormous scale.

Scientists preparing for Rubin data have worked hard to predict the types of discoveries Rubin and its ten-year survey will make, but they’re ready—and excited—to be surprised too. Rubin’s never-before-seen capabilities are bound to lead to unpredicted discoveries and reveal questions we didn’t even think to ask, helping us understand more about the Universe and our place in it.

6. People and organizations all around the world make Rubin possible.

Rubin Observatory is located in Chile, and is jointly funded by the US National Science Foundation and the US Department of Energy. State-of-the-art facilities that store and process Rubin data include the US Data Facility in California, the French Data Facility in Lyon, and the UK Data Facility, a network across the United Kingdom.

Major components of the observatory were built in France (the camera filter system), Spain (the mount for the telescope), Germany (the structure that keeps Rubin’s many cables organized, and the protective cover for the primary mirror), and the US (the 8.4-meter mirror was fabricated in Arizona, the 3.5-meter mirror in New York, and the camera in California).

Institutions around the world are providing in-kind contributions in exchange for access to Rubin data before they become world public (two years after being released to scientists with data rights).

And then there are the scientists themselves—networks of researchers from all over the world contributing to countless projects with a common goal: to advance our understanding of the Universe.