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Rubin Observatory Debuts First Images With 3,200-Megapixel Camera

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Published Jul 5, 2025, 03:31 AM

The NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory on Cerro Pachón in northern Chile published its inaugural images on 23 June 2025, achieving “first light” for what is now the world’s most powerful survey telescope.

Debut pictures include a seven-hour, 678-exposure mosaic of the Trifid and Lagoon nebulae and an ultra-wide view of the Virgo galaxy cluster that reveals about 10 million galaxies. In its first 10 hours of operation the facility’s software flagged 2,104 previously unseen asteroids, seven of them classified as near-Earth objects.

Central to the observatory is the 3,200-megapixel LSSTCam, a car-sized imager coupled to an 8.4-metre, three-mirror telescope. Each 39-second exposure covers 9.6 square degrees—roughly 45 full moons—and is relayed to supercomputers within seconds, generating roughly 20 terabytes of data and up to 10 million automated alerts each night.

With the first-light milestone reached, Rubin is on track to start the decade-long Legacy Survey of Space and Time later this year. The survey aims to map 20 billion galaxies, detect 90 percent of potentially hazardous asteroids larger than 140 metres, and shed new light on dark matter and dark energy. The US$1 billion observatory is jointly funded by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy.

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#Cerro Pachón #Chile #Trifid #Lagoon #Virgo #LSSTCam #Rubin #National Science Foundation #Department of Energy

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