Introducing...Education and Public Outreach with Rubin Observatory

Are you excited about astronomy and astrophysics, and how bigger, better telescopes help us learn more and more about what’s going on in space? Get ready to meet Rubin Observatory, a groundbreaking facility being built in Chile! We’re kicking off the Rubin Education and Public Outreach program, and this is your invitation to engage with Rubin Observatory, its science, and the people who will use Rubin data to answer some of our biggest questions about the Universe.

Our program includes all kinds of ways for you to get involved—whether you want to spend a few minutes or many hours exploring. Everything we offer is online, so all it takes is an internet connection to get started. You don’t even need a desktop computer (although that’s fine too), you can access everything from your favorite mobile device.

First, we invite you to try for a high score playing Space Surveyors, a game that lets you drive a Rubin Observatory-like survey telescope and experiment with the best way to capture images of stars, galaxies, and objects that move through the sky.

We also have a whole new website for you to discover, in English or Spanish. Learn about the features that make Rubin Observatory unique, and the areas of science that Rubin will contribute to—in ways we haven’t even imagined yet! You can also check out our Rubin Voices series, where we introduce you to some of the people working at Rubin, and the scientists who are excited to get their hands on Rubin data.

If you have just a couple minutes to spare, you might enjoy watching one of our animated videos. Find out why our observatory is named after Vera Rubin, or how Rubin Observatory will be particularly great at detecting objects that change or move in the sky. All our videos are available in English or Spanish too!

If you’re an educator working with students in high school or college, take a look at the classroom investigations we’ve developed, along with all the support materials you need to easily incorporate them into your lesson plans. The investigations are free to use and only require a browser and an internet connection. And yes, they’re available in English and Spanish too.

It’s true that Rubin Observatory is still under construction, and the enormous data set it will produce isn’t available quite yet. But we’re preparing more exciting, interactive experiences for you to explore Rubin data and science once the observatory is operating. At that time you’ll also see opportunities to contribute to cutting-edge Rubin science projects via the Zooniverse platform—we’ll direct you to these projects as soon as Rubin data starts flowing.

In the meantime, we invite you to start following us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube so you can get to know Rubin Observatory. We hope you’ll participate in the exciting lead-up to the discoveries and advances in astronomy and astrophysics that are coming…very soon…with Rubin Observatory.