Daily News Analysis ‘Chile’s Vera C. Rubin Observatory’ : 8 July

About the Vera C. Rubin Observatory:

• Location: Cerro Pachón, Chile, at 8,684 ft above sea level
• Main Instrument: Simonyi Survey Telescope
• Named After: Vera C. Rubin, the astronomer who provided early evidence of dark matter (1970s)

Key Features of the Observatory:

• Wide Field of View:

• • • Can observe an area equivalent to 40 full moons at once
    • Far wider than Hubble (1%) or James Webb (75% of Moon’s disc)
    • Uses a three-mirror design for wide-angle sky imaging

• World’s Largest Digital Camera:

• • • 3,200 megapixels, the size of a small car
    • Can detect objects 100 million times dimmer than the naked eye
    • Captures across six filters (UV to infrared) for studying diverse celestial objects

•  Rapid Movement:

• • Fastest-slewing telescope in the world — shifts and stabilizes in 5 seconds
  • Captures up to 1,000 images per night, scanning entire southern sky in 3 days

Mission and Scientific Goals:

• 10-year sky survey, capturing 20 TB of data every night
• Will generate up to 10 million alerts per night on changes in the sky
• Expected Discoveries:
  • Over 5 million asteroids
  • Around 100,000 near-Earth objects
  • Better understanding of the structure of the universe
  • Insights into dark matter (27%) and dark energy (68%) which dominate the universe’s composition

•  The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile recently released its first test images, revealing over 2,000 new asteroids and marking a major leap in the search for answers to deep cosmic questions.