Posted on 06/23/2025 5:28:44 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
NEW YORK (AP) — The largest digital camera ever built released its first shots of the universe Monday — including colorful nebulas, stars and galaxies.
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, located on a mountaintop in Chile, was built to take a deeper look at the night sky, covering hidden corners. Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Energy, it will survey the southern sky for the next 10 years.
The observatory’s first look features the vibrant Trifid and Lagoon nebulas located thousands of light-years from Earth. A light-year is nearly 6 trillion miles. A gaggle of galaxies known as the Virgo Cluster were also captured, including two bright blue spirals.
The observatory hopes to image 20 billion galaxies and discover new asteroids and other celestial objects.
The effort is named after astronomer Vera Rubin, who offered the first tantalizing evidence that a mysterious force called dark matter might be lurking in the universe. Researchers hope the observatory’s discerning camera may yield clues about this elusive entity along with another called dark energy.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
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https://apnews.com/article/vera-rubin-observatory-nsf-d7b645d2b1c0caad16f0945e1227a9b4
An even bigger picture of Uranus?
Amazing and beautiful. What a creation!
And to think, we are truly alone as for physical beings and we’re made in His image. God made us that way. Smart.
My grandkids asked me what a light year was. I did the math and told them it was like traveling to the moon and back 390 TIMES PER SECOND FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR.
............”like traveling to the moon and back 390 TIMES PER SECOND FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR.”
Awesome.
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is about to change everything we know about the Universe.
In just 10 hours of test observations, it captured millions of galaxies and Milky Way stars, and discovered 2,104 never-before-seen asteroids. The amount of data it will collect in its first year alone will exceed that of all optical observatories in history -- combined.The Vera C. Rubin Observatory Will Change Astronomy Forever | 10:19
Dr Kirsten Banks | 18.6K subscribers | 35,700 views | June 23, 2025
NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory has discovered 2104 asteroids.
Credit: RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/NSF/DOE/AURAVera C. Rubin Observatory captures 'swarm of new asteroids' | 1:06
VideoFromSpace | 2.01M subscribers | 190 views | June 24, 2025
Nice twofer!
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