Vera C. Rubin Observatory's Giant Eye on The Southern Sky | NOIRLab

Vera C. Rubin Observatory's Giant Eye on The Southern Sky | NOIRLab

High on the summit of Cerro Pachón in the Chilean Andes, NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory stands like a watchtower, scanning the cosmos with a gaze wide enough to capture the entire sky of the southern hemisphere in a three-night sweep. Rubin Observatory is jointly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science (DOE/SC). Rubin is a joint Program of NSF NOIRLab and DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory that jointly operate Rubin.

Rubin will detect up to 10 million changes in the sky every night during its decade-long survey. Supernovae are an example of the most dynamic of these changes. They are often found by chance, although scientists have been looking for new ways to anticipate them. Previously, humans simply had to be supernova spotters, one of the most famous visually observed 42 supernovae over their lifetime. Spotting supernovae has become even easier in the last three decades through automation. Today, Rubin optimizes this automation with its 3200-megapixel LSST Camera and data processing software trained to catch even the faintest cosmic flicker. In the next decade, Rubin is expected to capture about ten million supernovae. What once took a lifetime of quiet observation can now be done every night, thousands of times over. From memory to machine, the mission remains the same: never miss a light in the dark.

Rubin Observatory is seen here beneath the southern sky. The Milky Way arcs overhead, and the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) can be seen on the left. Petr Horálek, the photographer, is a NOIRLab Audiovisual Ambassador.

The LSST Camera (LSSTCam)

https://lsstcam.lsst.io/

An Introduction to Vera Rubin:

https://rubinobservatory.org/about/vera-rubin

Credit: RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/NSF/DOE/AURA/P. Horálek (Institute of Physics in Opava)
Release Date: Oct. 15, 2025

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