Mallik Sundharam Vice President for Enrollment Management and Student Affairs | Illinois Institute Of Technology
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory has begun to make its mark on the field of astronomy with the release of its first images following the achievement of "first light." This milestone marks the moment when a telescope gathers data for the first time. The observatory, equipped with an 8.4-meter telescope and the world's largest digital camera at 3.2 gigapixels, began capturing images on June 23.
The Rubin Observatory's initial findings include the discovery of 2,104 new asteroids, among them seven near-Earth objects. Additionally, it has produced a detailed 5-gigapixel image of the Trifid and Lagoon Nebulae and showcased numerous variable stars.
Emily Leiner, an Assistant Professor of Physics at Illinois Tech whose research focuses on stellar evolution, commented on the observatory's performance: “It’s showing that the telescope is performing at the level that it was designed,” she said. “It’s finding the things we expected to find.”
Leiner, along with three undergraduate students from Illinois Tech, will be among the first researchers to analyze data from this observatory as part of their involvement in the Legacy Survey of Space and Time Discovery Alliance. This analysis will commence after the first official data drop scheduled for early July.
Leiner expressed her amazement at the photos released by the observatory located in Chile’s Atacama Desert and highlighted its potential impact on astronomy: “It’s really the first-of-its-kind mission to be imaging the night sky to this depth over and over again,” she stated. She noted that it is predicted to detect between three to four million supernovae over its decade-long mission—significantly more than previous surveys.
As Leiner remarked about future discoveries: “They’ve already found all of this cool new stuff, and there’s much more to come.”