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The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science will support Rubin Observatory in its operations phase to carry out the Legacy Survey of Space and Time. They will also provide support for scientific research with the data. During operations, NSF funding is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with NSF, and DOE funding is managed by SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), under contract by DOE. Rubin Observatory is operated by NSF NOIRLab and SLAC.

NSF is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 to promote the progress of science. NSF supports basic research and people to create knowledge that transforms the future.

The DOE Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time.

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Rubin Observatory Under the Milky Way

Rubin Observatory under a starry night sky. The observatory sits on top of its rocky summit site in the foreground, and is made of a long white building that extends to the left and a silver angular dome sticking up. The Milky Way is visible, spanning the image horizontally above the observatory as a dense stream of stars interspersed with dark and wispy dust clouds. The yellow glow of city lights in La Serena are seen in the distance to the lower left.
View of Vera C. Rubin Observatory beneath the glittering band of the Milky Way. Rubin Observatory, located in Chile, will use an 8.4-meter telescope equipped with the largest digital camera in the world to conduct a 10-year survey of the entire southern hemisphere sky beginning in late 2025. The resulting data, with images taken through six different color filters, will make it easier than ever for scientists to isolate stellar streams among and beyond the Milky Way and examine them for signs of dark matter disruption.
Credit: Rubin Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/H. Stockebrand

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Date created:
October 13, 2023
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Tags

  • #Milky Way
  • #science release
  • #stellar streams
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