World's Largest Digital Camera Starts Mapping Unseen Universe
The largest digital camera ever built has begun capturing images of previously unseen corners of the universe. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, perched on a mountaintop in Chile, has officially started its decade-long survey of the southern sky.
Over the next 10 years, the telescope will take hundreds of images each night, covering vast swaths of the sky in unprecedented depth and detail. Researchers hope the observations will help create a comprehensive census of the universe, mapping billions of stars within the Milky Way and billions more galaxies beyond.
By imaging the same areas repeatedly, scientists aim to detect faint objects that have eluded previous observations. 'We're going to see large numbers of scientists across the world working with this data set, studying the universe in a way that they haven't been able to before,' said Phil Marshall, the observatory's deputy director of operations.
The Rubin Observatory released its first images last year, showcasing colourful views of the Trifid and Lagoon nebulas, located thousands of light-years away. Since then, the camera has undergone calibration to ensure it can achieve the accuracy required for the survey. The data may help astronomers understand how galaxies form and evolve over billions of years, and shed light on the origins of the universe.
Funded by the US National Science Foundation and the US Department of Energy, the observatory is named after astronomer Vera Rubin, who provided early evidence for the existence of dark matter. Scientists hope the survey will reveal clues about both dark matter and dark energy, two of the most mysterious forces in the cosmos.
