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FIRST IMAGES OF DISTANT GALAXIES CAPTURED BY ‘ULTIMATE’ TELESCOPE
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Ian Sample
June 23, 2025
The Guardian
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_ Stunning pictures from Vera C Rubin observatory in Chile released
at start of 10-year survey of cosmos. _
This image combines 678 separate images taken by the Vera C Rubin
Observatory in just over seven hours of observing time. Clouds of gas
and dust that comprise the Trifid nebula (top right) and the Lagoon
nebula, which are several thousand light-years away, NSF-DOE Vera C
Rubin observatory
Spectacular views of distant galaxies, giant dust clouds and hurtling
asteroids have been revealed in the first images captured by a
groundbreaking telescope that is embarking on a 10-year survey of the
cosmos.
The stunning pictures from the $810m (£595m) Vera C Rubin observatory
in Chile mark the start of what astronomers believe will be a
gamechanging period of discovery as the telescope sets about compiling
the best view yet of the universe in action.
In about 10 hours of observations, the observatory spotted 2,104
previously unspotted asteroids in our solar system, including seven
near-Earth asteroids, which were said to pose no danger to the planet.
“I’m absolutely blown away. Just look, it’s teeming with
gorgeous glittering galaxies!” said Prof Catherine Heymans, an
astrophysicist at the University of Edinburgh and Scotland’s
astronomer royal.
“I’m so delighted that they chose Virgo for the ‘first look’
as it celebrates a key moment in humanity’s dark matter story. It
was 1930s observations of the Virgo and Coma clusters that prompted
Fritz Zwicky to conclude there must be extra invisible dark matter out
there.”
Built on Cerro Pachón, a mountain in the foothills of the Chilean
Andes, the 18-storey observatory is equipped with the largest camera
ever built. It will observe the entire southern sky every three to
four days and then repeat the process, over and over, for a decade.
The result will be the largest astronomical movie of all time,
capturing everything in sight from asteroids, comets and exploding
stars to potential new planets and interstellar objects. Whenever the
telescope detects a change it will alert astronomers within minutes so
they can bring other instruments to bear on the event.
“We’ve never looked at the universe in this way before. You get to
see everything that moves, everything that changes in brightness,”
said Heymans.
Rubin is a US facility, but the UK is heavily involved as one of three
international data facilities that will process about 1.5m images
capturing about 10bn stars and galaxies.
During the survey, the Rubin observatory will make trillions of
measurements of billions of objects. Looking beyond the Milky Way,
astronomers expect to map about 20bn previously unknown galaxies.
[Galaxies and stars]
Two prominent spiral galaxies (lower right), three merging galaxies
(upper right) in the Virgo cluster, as well as several groups of
distant galaxies, many stars in the Milky Way galaxy. Photograph:
NSF-DOE Vera C Rubin observatory/AFP/Getty
When complete, the full 10-year survey is expected to rack up as much
as 500 petabytes of data.
“The power of this observatory is about being able to see so much of
the cosmos,” said Prof Aaron Roodman, the deputy director for Rubin
construction. “We can almost look anywhere and get an incredible
treasure trove of information.”
At the heart of the telescope is a car-sized 3,200 megapixel digital
camera. The images it captures are so large it would take 400
ultra-high definition TVs to display one at full size. To see the
first images in all their glory, many astronomers made arrangements to
view them through their local planetariums.
By layering-up multiple images from the same patch of sky, the
telescope’s decade-long Legacy Survey of Space
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extremely dim and distant objects. Astronomers are particularly keen
to search for a potential Planet Nine, which may lurk far beyond
Neptune and orbit the sun every 10,000 to 20,000 years.
The images should also shed light on the dark universe, the 95% of the
cosmos attributed to mysterious and invisible components known as dark
matter and dark energy. Armed with the images, astronomers will map
how dark matter is strewn throughout the universe and how its
distribution changes over time. By monitoring millions of exploded
stars, scientists will measure the expansion of the universe, and hone
their description of the dark energy thought to drive the process.
Far more discoveries are anticipated. The observatory is expect to
catalogue about 90,000 new near-Earth asteroids, more than double the
number known so far. Among them may be asteroids that risk hitting
Earth. Space agencies are planning for such an event, with Rubin
central to finding threatening space rocks before they find us.
Many of the images the observatory takes will be crossed with streaks
from overflying satellites such as the SpaceX Starlinks. But automated
algorithms will spot the tracks and blot them out, with minimal impact
on the scientific analyses.
“Rubin is a workhorse,” Heymans said. “This is the kit that
we’ve been working towards. “This is the ultimate telescope.”
===
Ian Sample is science editor of the Guardian. Before joining the
newspaper in 2003, he was a journalist at New Scientist and worked at
the Institute of Physics as a journal editor. He has a PhD in
biomedical materials from Queen Mary's, University of London. Ian also
presents the Science Weekly podcast
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* The Rubin Telescope; Vera C Rubin Observatory; Ten Year Survey of
the Universe;
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