Why in news?
In July 2025 the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile released its first test images from the world’s largest digital camera. This facility will soon start mapping the southern sky at unprecedented speed and detail.
About the observatory
- Location: Cerro Pachón mountain in Chile, a site with clear skies essential for astronomical observations.
- Project goals: The observatory aims to conduct the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), imaging the entire southern sky every three nights for ten years.
- Scientific focus: It will study dark matter and dark energy, map the Milky Way, catalogue millions of asteroids and detect transient events such as supernovae.
Key features
- Massive camera: The LSST camera boasts 3,200 megapixels (3.2 gigapixels) and a 3.5‑metre mirror, giving a field of view equivalent to 40 full moons.
- High cadence: The telescope will scan the sky rapidly, generating about 20 terabytes of data each night and issuing up to 10 million alerts for transient phenomena.
- Automation: Sophisticated software will process images, identify moving objects and highlight events requiring follow‑up observations.
Importance
- Provide unprecedented insights into the structure and evolution of the universe by tracking billions of galaxies and stars.
- Improve planetary defence by cataloguing near‑Earth objects and potentially hazardous asteroids.
- Offer open data resources to researchers worldwide, promoting collaboration and discoveries.