Vera C Rubin Observatory shows 1. Breathtaking pictures of the cosmos. Scientists “are not excited about what comes”

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Vera C. Rubin Observatory published his first pictures when his 10-year mission begins with the legacy overview of space and time (reads).

This will revolutionize astronomy, one of its main goals the examination of the dark energy, the mysterious force that drives the accelerating expansion of the universe, and the dark matter, the strange substance, which constitutes 85% of the “stuff” in the cosmos, but remain effectively invisible.

From his perch on Cerro Pachón in Chile, a mountain that rises around 5,200 feet above sea level, Rubin scans all night sky over the southern hemisphere every three nights. This endeavor will be the most extensive continuous mapping of the southern sky that has ever been tried and is carried out by Rubin using the 8.4-meter simonyi survey telescope and the LSST camera (LSSCAM), the largest digital camera ever built with the size of a small car.

Only one picture from the LSSCAM covers an area that corresponds to the size of 45 full moons in the sky. Above is the first picture of the Virgo Cluster Observatory, a huge group of galaxies that are around 53.8 million light years from Earth. The picture shows a variety of heavenly objects, including galaxies and stars. This picture shows the true potential of Rubin and contains a rich wall carpet of around 10 million galaxies alone.

Surprisingly, the ten million galaxies in the picture above are only 0.05% of the number of around 20 billion Galaxies that Rubin depicted at the end of the LSST. In fact, Rubin will have collected data in an estimated 40 billion heavenly bodies in a decade, which means that we will have seen more heavenly bodies than there are people alive for the first time.

It is not surprising that many of these objects are being viewed by humanity for the first time today. The known objects were highlighted in the picture below.

“Vera C. Rubin Observatory will enable us to give depth and dynamics to the observation of the universe,” said Roberto Ragazzoni, President of the National Institute for Astrophysics (Inaf).

“With this 8-meter-class telescope, which continuously mapped the southern sky every three days, we enter the era of ‘astro-cinematography’ and examine a new dimension: The time with which we expect the cosmos to be examined a new perspective with a new perspective, which is now also when using new information technologies with a mass of data that is otherwise unfounded.”

If it moves, Rubin will see it

One of Rubin’s most impressive skills is the ability to examine objects that change over time when he builds up the “greatest film ever”. This unique performance results from the fact that Rubin can scan the sky with super -fast speeds, about 10 to 100 times faster than similar large telescopes.

The “transients”, which it sees, will include over 100 million variable stars that change their brightness due to pulsations, thermal instabilities and themselves because of planet “transiting” or through the passage between ruby ​​and their visible windows.

Rubin will also be able to observe millions of massive stars if they end their lives and undergo supernova explosions. The groundbreaking observatory will also examine so-called “type-I-supernovas”, which are triggered when dead star-and-white dwarfs get out of control after overfeeding outstanding companions.

Type -Ia -Supernovas are also referred to as “standard candles” because their consistent luminsities enable astronomers to measure cosmic distances. Therefore, Rubin will also have indirect effects on astronomy by offering scientists a wealth of new and better increased distances between objects in the universe.

In fact, by watching objects, when you change the brightness in the night high, Rubin offers astronomers a better picture of asteroids and small bodies when they circle the earth. This could help space agencies such as NASA to evaluate potential threats to the earth and to defend themselves against asteroids.

The YouTube video below shows over 2,100 new asteroids that Rubin discovered in the first week of operation alone.

“When something moves in the sky or changes, Rubin recognizes her in real time in real time. This means that we will be able to observe temporary phenomena in action, which enables new, often unexpected, astrophysic discoveries,” said Sara (Rosaria) Bonito of the Board of Directors of the LSST -Discovering Alliance of Vera C. Rubinatory.

“Rubin will produce a real multi -colored film of heaven that takes a whole decade. A film that enables us to see the universe like never before: not only through static images, but in dynamic development.”

Rubin’s strength lies in the details

Hours before the main pictures mentioned above was published at 11 a.m. Edt (1500 GMT) On Monday (June 23) the Rubin team released several smaller “preview” pictures, which are smaller sections of these larger images. These give the general public the opportunity to observe the incredible detail in images that were recorded by the LSST camera.

“This preview images are already underlining Rubin’s uniqueness to look at the cosmos in a way that we have never done before and brings heaven to life!” Andrés Alejandro Plazas Malagón, a researcher at Stanford University and part of the Rubin Observatory Community Science team, said Space.com. “These preview images also underline the sophistication and performance of the software that is used to reduce or clean the images: the LSST -Science pipelines.”

The picture below shows the fog fog (also known as Messier 20 or NGC 6514) at the top right, which is around 9,000 light years away from earth, and the lagoon lever (Messier 8 or NGC 6523), which is removed at 4,000 to 6,000 light years. These are regions in which gas and dust clouds condense to born new stars.

The picture above combines 678 separate pictures that Rubin took over over a little more than 7 hours. The combination of images like this is able to reveal details that are otherwise too weak to see them or practically invisible. This shows the clouds of gas and dust, from which these fog emanish incredibly.

“The Trifod Lagoon picture shows these two fog or stellar kindergartens regions with gas and dust, which are made from about 678 individual images,” said Plazas Malagón. “It is impressive how the large field of vision of LSSTCAM has hit the scene at once!”

The picture below shows a small section of Rubin’s overall view of the Jungfrau cluster. The bright foresights in this picture are at home and lie on the Milky Way. There are many galaxies in the background that are even further away than the Virgo cluster.

The picture below shows another small amount of ruby ​​overall view of the Jungfrau cluster. Two prominent spiral galaxies are visible in the lower right frame of the picture. In the picture of the picture there are three galaxies that collide and merge.

The picture also contains several other groups of distant galaxies and a wealth of stars in our galaxy. It is just a 50th of the entire picture from which it came.

“The other preview images show a fraction of the Virgo cluster, a galaxy cluster of around 1,000 galaxies. Created from about 10 hours of data, we already see Rubin’s ability to record the weakest objects with exquisite details, enable amazing science. And these images are about 2 percent of the field of the perspective of a single LSSTCAM image!” Plazas Malagón said.

Related stories:

– How the Rubin Observatory could see thousands of “failed stars”

-The largest digital camera in the world that helps the new Vera Rubin Observatory to “recruit the universe” (video)

– Rubin Observatory Aces 1st Figure Test, is ready to use the world’s largest digital camera

After the publication of these pictures, the next big step for Rubin is the start of the LSST that should occur in the next few months.

“Vera C. Rubin Observatory and his first project are a unique opportunity for the new generation,” said Bonito. “It is a big legacy for everyone who turns scientific disciplines and offer a revolutionary instrument for astrophysics and new technologies for data interpretation.”

Bonito added that astrophysics that can be carried out with Rubin is extremely diversified: A single observation campaign will enable us to react to very broad scientific topics that affect our galaxy, but also dark matter, our solar system and even the most unpredictable phenomena in the sky. “

And at the age of 10 of the LSS, the future of ruby ​​and astronomy is generally bright.

“These preview images also underline the sophistication and power of the Les Science Pipelines software that was used to reduce or clean the images,” Plazas Malagón closed. “As a observation cosmologist and after the development of the Les Science pipelines and the characterization of the LSSCAM, I am proud of what’s coming!”

To get into the first picture of Rubin and explore yourself, visit the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Skyviewer page.