The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile with LMC, SMC and Milky Way Galaxies
The Rubin Observatory is packed with new technology. The Simonyi Survey Telescope’s drive system, rigid design, and compact shape give it incredible speed, forming the streaks of light showcased in this image. Thanks to these features, the telescope can be ready for its next image in only five seconds—faster than any other telescope of its size. The LSST Camera, constructed by DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is the world’s largest digital camera. The camera is roughly the size of a small car and weighs almost 6600 lbs (3000 kg). Its size and design allow it to view vast areas of the sky, capturing 45 times the area of the full Moon in the sky with each exposure. Together, the innovative technologies in the Simonyi Survey Telescope and the LSST Camera is expected to make many discoveries.
Other telescopes can detect changes in a star’s brightness, but Rubin is the only one that can simultaneously catch multiple faint, steady pulses of RR Lyrae stars across huge swaths of the sky and also detect them very far away from Earth. Rubin's sensitive camera captures variations so subtle that our eyes can barely detect them when looking at the images. Rubin will collect nearly a thousand measurements for each variable star, ensuring that scientists focused on variable stars can amass huge samples to study. Rubin’s wide view and fast survey speed will give us data on far more of these stars than ever before—even those way out in the outskirts of the Milky Way—giving us a much clearer picture of what our Galaxy looks like.
Release Date: Oct. 23, 2025
No comments:
Post a Comment