In News:

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile has unveiled its first stunning images, highlighting the capabilities of its 3,200-megapixel digital camera — the most powerful ever constructed.

Location and Background:

• Situated 8,684 feet above sea level on Cerro Pachón mountain, Chilean Andes.
• Named after Vera C. Rubin, the astronomer who first provided evidence for dark matter in the 1970s.
• Joint initiative of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Objective:
The observatory aims to conduct an unprecedented 10-year survey of the southern sky, addressing critical questions like:

• Structure and formation of the Milky Way
• Existence of Planet 9
• Detection of potentially hazardous asteroids
• Nature of dark matter and dark energy

Key Features:

1. Simonyi Survey Telescope

A state-of-the-art telescope, unique for:

a) Wide Field of View:

• Captures an area equivalent to 40 full Moons in a single shot.
• Utilizes a three-mirror design:
  • Primary Mirror: 8.4 m
  • Secondary Mirror: 3.5 m
  • Tertiary Mirror: 5 m (part of primary)
• Enables scanning of the entire visible sky every three nights.

b) Largest Digital Camera in the World:

• Size: Comparable to a small car
• Weight: 2,800 kg
• Resolution: 3,200 megapixels
• Sensor sensitivity: Detects objects 100 million times dimmer than visible to the naked eye
• Has six optical filters to capture various wavelengths (e.g., UV for hot stars, IR for distant galaxies)

c) Fastest Slewing Capability:

• Adjusts from one celestial target to another in just five seconds
• Enables up to 1,000 images per night

Scientific Potential and Impact

• Will collect 20 terabytes of data every night, generating nearly 10 million alerts per night for any detected changes in the sky.
• Already identified 2,104 new asteroids, including 7 near-Earth objects, using only 10 hours of preliminary data.
• Expected to catalogue:
  • 5 million+ asteroids
  • 100,000 near-Earth objects
  • More than double the total known asteroids within a year of full operation
• Facilitates a high-resolution map of the universe’s structure—vital to understand the distribution of dark matter and dark energy, which together constitute 95% of the universe.