The largest digital camera ever built begins decade-long survey of the universe

Key Points:

• The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, home to the largest digital camera ever built, has begun a 10-year cosmic survey from a Chilean mountaintop, capturing hundreds of images of the southern sky each night.
• The observatory aims to map billions of stars in the Milky Way and billions of galaxies beyond, providing deeper and more detailed views of previously unseen parts of the universe.
• By repeatedly imaging the same sky areas, Rubin will enable scientists to detect fainter celestial objects and study galaxy formation, clustering, and the universe's evolution over billions of years.
• Funded by the National Science Foundation and Department of Energy, the project honors astronomer Vera Rubin, whose work provided early evidence of dark matter, and researchers hope the survey will shed light on dark matter and dark energy.
• Rubin's first images, including colorful views of the Trifid and Lagoon nebulas, were released last year, and the equipment has since been fine-tuned for the survey's required depth and accuracy.