What do photos from the largest digital camera ever built look like? Now we know, with the first images released from The National Science Foundation–U.S. Department of Energy Vera C. Rubin Observatory.
They are stunning in their resolution. Each full image snapped by the observatory’s 8.4-meter Simonyi Survey Telescope and 3,200-megapixel LSST Camera would require 400 4K high-definition television screens to display at its original size, according to the observatory. It should come as no surprise, then, that once up and running the Rubin Observatory will produce on the order of 20 terabytes of data each night as it images the entire southern sky every three to four days during the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). It will do this for 10 years, building up an ultrawide and ultra-high-definition time-lapse view of the universe we have never before been privy to.
“Ruben Observatory’s main feature is its opening of the time domain and its enormous field of view,” said Yusra AlSayyad, who manages the observatory’s image-processing algorithms, during a June 9 press conference about the first look images.
The images released so far truly showcase that expansive field of view, from glowing nebulae to countless galaxies. And more are on the way: The National Science Foundation will be hosting a public press conference Monday morning, starting at 11 A.M. EDT, which will include additional images and videos that will capture more vast vistas as well as show off the telescope’s time-lapse capabilities.
Related: ‘First light’ images from Vera C. Rubin Observatory coming Monday: Here’s how to watch
But first, these breathtakingly deep wide-field images will blow you away.
The Trifid and Lagoon nebulae
This rich, vibrant image brimming with glowing gas and and scattered stars shows the Trifid and Lagoon nebulae (M20 and M8, respectively). The Trifid Nebula, named for the three lobes separated by the dark dust lanes of Barnard 85 that intersect at its center, is located at upper right. The much larger Lagoon Nebula, a well-known star-forming region, glows to its lower left, taking up the central portion of the image. Both nebulae are located located some 5,200 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius. The galactic plane, where most of the stars, dust, and gas of the Milky Way reside, runs through this region, resulting in cosmic views you feel you could fall into.
This image is not one snapshot, but a composite of 678 separate images taken over the course of a little more than seven hours.
The Virgo Cluster
Named for its location in the constellation Virgo, the Virgo Cluster lies some 65 million light-years away and is home to more than 2,000 galaxies within a region of space spanning tens of millions of light-years and covering more than 8° on the sky.
These images show just two small sections of the Rubin Observatory’s total view of the cluster and include a variety of galaxy morphologies from big, bright, fuzzy ellipticals to delicate spirals and tiny dwarfs. Despite the Virgo Cluster’s size and reach, not every galaxy in these images is part of the cluster — many of the smaller galaxies scattered throughout the frame lie in the distant background. By contrast, any stars visible in the images are part of the Milky Way, sitting in the foreground.
“We selected fields that would showcase its enormous field of view, which allows you to zoom out and see large galaxies that are tidally interacting, but also zoom in and see the the dense background of galaxies,” said AlSayyad.
When we image the sky, three-dimensional space is compressed into a two-dimensional representation, so objects near and far overlap. Nonetheless, the Virgo Cluster is indeed a huge local concentration of galaxies, making it (and other galaxy clusters like it) a fascinating place to observe and the perfect place to study how galaxies interact and evolve over time.
The time dimension
In addition to its immense field of view view, the Rubin Observatory will also unlock new depths within time-domain astronomy, allowing astronomers to study objects such as pulsars, supernovae, variable stars, quasars, and much more in intricate detail and in real time as they change. And every change will trigger an alert sent out, so that researchers can quickly follow up in more detail.
“Since we take images of the night sky so quickly and so often, we’ll detect millions of changing objects literally every night,” said Aaron Roodman, the program lead for the LSST Camera and Deputy Director for the observatory’s construction, during the June 9 press conference. “We also will combine those images to be able to see incredibly dim galaxies and stars, including galaxies that are billions of light-years away.”
A wealth of data
Light from astronomical objects bounces off each of the telescope’s three mirrors before entering the camera for imaging. Each image covers an area on the sky equivalent to 45 Full Moons, or 9.62 square degrees. Once the LSST is underway, every night the telescope will step through the sky snapping about 1,000 images per day, guided by an automated scheduler that takes into account factors such as weather and survey goals. The observatory will complete a full survey of the entire visible Southern Hemisphere sky from its location every three to four days, and then start again.
“The amount of data gathered by Rubin Observatory in just the first year of the LSST will be greater than that collected by all other observatories combined,” said Mike England, who moderated the June 9 briefing.
The LSST survey itself is expected to begin later this year. At the end of 10 years, AlSayyad said the data — with will include calibrations and measurements provided by the observatory — might top out at 500 petabytes. That includes some 800 images of every visible section of the sky, built up over those 10 years.
The LSST will ultimately produce trillions of measurements of billions of objects, helping astronomers better understand out cosmos in intricate detail and likely opening up new avenues of research and cause us to ask new questions we haven’t even thought of to ask today.
“Rubin Observatory is truly a discovery machine,” said Roodman. “It will enable us to explore galaxies, stars in the Milky Way, objects in the solar system, and all in a truly new way.”
Related: How Vera Rubin and Nancy Grace Roman transformed astronomy
