Rubin Observatory/LSSTCam

Two decades ago, Stanford and SLAC took a gamble on an unproven telescope design. Now it's on the verge of paying off.

The state-of-the-art ‘big-data facility’ unveils its first images and video, bringing the night sky to life like never before.

In about 10 hours of observations, NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory discovered 2,104 never-before-seen asteroids in our solar system, including seven near-Earth asteroids (which pose no danger). 

Made from over 1,100 images captured by NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, the video begins with a close-up of two galaxies then zooms out to reveal about 10 million galaxies. 

A view of Cerro Pachón at sunset in 2024 shows the Rubin Observatory with Gemini South and SOAR in the distance, ahead of Rubin’s 10-year survey of the southern sky.

A drone circles the Rubin Observatory at sunset in 2024, just before it begins a 10-year survey of the southern sky.

NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory is about to embark on its quest to capture the cosmos, marking the culmination of decades of work by thousands of people across the globe.

NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory will add an unprecedented amount of cosmological data to the study of the structure and expansion of the Universe.

He met with SLAC staff and toured the lab’s cutting-edge facilities, diving into world-leading research in X-ray and ultrafast science, artificial intelligence, astrophysics and more.

A look inside the data processing infrastructure built by the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory to handle the Universe’s greatest data challenge.