The Largest Camera Ever Built Releases Its First Images of the Cosmos

Perched at the top of Cerro Pachón Mountain in Chile, 8,684 feet high in the Atacama desert, where dry air creates some of the best conditions in the world to see the night sky, a new telescope unlike all that has been built before has started its investigation into the cosmos. The Vera C. Rubin observatory, named after the astronomer who Discovered of black matter evidence in 1978should reveal some 20 billion galaxies, 17 billion stars in the Milky Way, 10 million supernovas and millions of smaller objects in the solar system.

“We are absolutely assured of finding something that blows the minds of people,” explains Anthony Tyson, chief scientist of the Rubin observatory. “Something we can’t tell you, because we don’t know it. Something unusual.”

This huge astronomical transport will come from 10 years of the observatory Investigation inherited on space and timewhich should start later this year. The first scientific images of the telescope were published to the public today.

Rubin’s unprecedented investigation into the night sky promises to transform our understanding of the cosmos. What happened during the first stages of planet’s formation in the solar system? What types of high energy exotic explosions occur in the universe? And what calls the esoteric force that scientists call dark energy Really works?

“Usually you designer a telescope or a project to answer one of these questions,” explains Mario Juric, scientist of the data management project for Rubin. “What makes Rubin so powerful is that we can build a machine that provides data to the whole community to resolve all of these questions at the same time.”

The telescope will create a high resolution film of a decade of the universe. He will generate around 20 data teraoctes per day, the three -year equivalent in Netflix streaming, accumulating some 60,000 teraoctets by the end of his investigation. During its first year only, Rubin will compile more data than all previous optical observatories combined.

“You must have an almost fully automated software suite behind it, because no human can process or even look at these images,” explains Juric. “The vast majority of pixels that Rubin will collect in the sky will never be seen by human eyes, so we have to build software eyes to go through all these images and identify … the most unusual objects.”

These unusual objects –asteroids from other solar systems, Supermassive black holes Devouring stars, high -energy explosions without known source – continue secrets on the functioning of the cosmos.

“You build a telescope like this, and it is the equivalent of building four or five telescopes for specific areas,” explains Joric. “But you can do everything at the same time.”

The Observatory of the Cerro Pachón summit in Chile.NSF-Doe Vera C. Rubin Observatory / A. Pizarro D.

One telescope not like no other

Installed in a 10 -storey building, the Rubin observatory is equipped with an 8.4 -meter primary mirror and a 3,200 megapixel digital camera, the largest ever built. The telescope runs on a specialized frame, taking exhibitions of 30 seconds from the sky before quickly pivoting a new position. Rubin will take around 1,000 images each night, photographing the whole sky of the southern hemisphere in the smallest detail every three to four days.

“It’s an incredible engineering piece,” explains Sandrine Thomas, a project scientist who works on the optical instruments of the Rubin Observatory.