The Trifid (upper-right) and Lagoon (centre) Nebulae as viewed with the Vera C. Rubin Observatory
NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory
A pink-and-blue feast of stellar nurseries and a dense cluster of our neighbouring galaxies appear in the first glimpses of space from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, which is set to transform our understanding of the universe with unprecedentedly detailed scans of the night sky.
These images, which were compiled from around 10 hours of observation from the Cerro Pachón mountain in Chile, are tests that illustrate the sorts of shots Rubin is capable of capturing. The telescope’s decade-long mission to observe the night sky each night, known as the Legacy Survey of Space and Time, will start later this year.
The first image (above) contains the Trifid Nebula, the pink-and-blue ball in the upper-right quarter, which is a star-forming region in our galaxy surrounded by thousands of young stars. In the centre of the shot is the Lagoon Nebula, a vast cloud of interstellar gas and dust. To create this image, astronomers combined 678 different pictures taken over 7 hours by Rubin.
A small section of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s total view of the Virgo cluster
NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory
The second image is a close-up of the Virgo cluster, a network of thousands of galaxies that has been known to astronomers for centuries. While its brightest members can be seen with simple telescopes, Rubin’s view shows the entire cluster and the galaxies around it in extreme detail. The full zoomed-out image, which can be seen in the video above, reveals around 10 million galaxies.
These are just 0.5 per cent of the 20 billion galaxies that Rubin will observe over its lifetime, helping shed light on mysteries such as dark matter and the possible existence of another planet in our solar system, known as Planet Nine.
More pictures from the observatory will be released during a livestream today at 4pm BST (11am EDT), which stargazing fans will view at watch parties around the world.
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