Perched atop the Cerro Pachón mountain in Chile, 8,684 toes excessive within the Atacama Desert, the place the dry air creates among the greatest circumstances on the earth to view the evening sky, a brand new telescope in contrast to something constructed earlier than has begun its survey of the cosmos. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, named for the astronomer who found proof of darkish matter in 1978, is predicted to disclose some 20 billion galaxies, 17 billion stars within the Milky Method, 10 million supernovas, and hundreds of thousands of smaller objects throughout the photo voltaic system.
“We’re completely assured to search out one thing that blows folks’s minds,” says Anthony Tyson, chief scientist of the Rubin Observatory. “One thing that we can’t let you know, as a result of we don’t realize it. One thing uncommon.”
This large astronomical haul will come from the observatory’s 10-year Legacy Survey of House and Time, which is slated to start later this yr. The primary science photographs from the telescope have been launched to the general public at this time.
Rubin’s unprecedented survey of the evening sky guarantees to rework our understanding of the cosmos. What occurred throughout the early phases of planet formation within the photo voltaic system? What sorts of unique, high-energy explosions happen within the universe? And the way does the esoteric pressure that scientists name darkish vitality really work?
“Often you’ll design a telescope or a undertaking to go and reply one in every of these questions,” says Mario Juric, the info administration undertaking scientist for Rubin. “What makes Rubin so highly effective is that we are able to construct one machine that provides knowledge to the complete neighborhood to resolve all of those questions without delay.”
The telescope will create a decade-long, high-resolution film of the universe. It can generate about 20 terabytes of knowledge per day, the equal of three years streaming Netflix, piling up some 60,000 terabytes by the tip of its survey. In its first yr alone, Rubin will compile extra knowledge than all earlier optical observatories mixed.
“It’s important to have an nearly absolutely automated software program suite behind it, as a result of no human can course of and even take a look at these photographs,” Juric says. “The overwhelming majority of pixels that Rubin goes to gather from the sky won’t ever ever be seen by human eyes, so we now have to construct software program eyes to undergo all these photographs and determine … probably the most uncommon objects.”
These uncommon objects—asteroids from different photo voltaic techniques, supermassive black holes devouring stars, high-energy blasts with no recognized supply—include secrets and techniques concerning the workings of the cosmos.
“You construct a telescope like this, and it’s the equal of constructing 4 or 5 telescopes for particular areas,” Juric says. “However you are able to do it all of sudden.”
The observatory on the summit of Cerro Pachón in Chile.NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory/A. Pizarro D.
A Telescope Like No Different
Housed in a 10-story constructing, the Rubin Observatory is provided with an 8.4-meter main mirror and a 3,200-megapixel digital digital camera, the biggest ever constructed. The telescope rotates on a specialised mount, taking 30-second exposures of the sky earlier than shortly pivoting to a brand new place. Rubin will take about 1,000 photographs each evening, photographing the complete Southern Hemisphere sky in extraordinary element each three to 4 days.
“It’s a tremendous piece of engineering,” says Sandrine Thomas, a undertaking scientist who works on the optical devices of the Rubin Observatory.
