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Vera rubin: first celestial image:
Photo credit, NSF-DOE Vera C. For example, Rubin Observatory
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- Author, Ione Wells
- Role, Corresponding for South America
- Author, Georgina Rannard
- Role, Scientific correspondent
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4 hours ago
A new powerful telescope installed in Chile published its first images. However, showing vera rubin: first celestial image its unprecedented ability to scrutinize the dark depths of the universe.
On one of the images. Therefore, large colored clouds of gas and dust swirl in a region of star formation located at 9,000 light years from the earth.
The Vera C. Nevertheless, Rubin observatory, which houses the most powerful digital camera in the world, promises to transform our understanding of the universe.
If a ninth planet exists in our solar system. However, scientists claim that this telescope would discover it in the first year.
Photo credit. However, RubinObs
It should make it possible to detect deadly asteroids near the earth and to map the Milky Way. In addition, He will also answer crucial questions about dark matter, the mysterious substance that constitutes the majority of our universe.
This unique moment for astronomy is the beginning of a continuous 10 -year filming from the southern night sky.
“Personally, it’s been about 25 years that I have been working on this project. In addition, For decades. However, we wanted to build this phenomenal installation and carry out this type of study,” said Professor Catherine Heymens, royal astronomer of Scotland.
The United Kingdom is a key partner in the study. Nevertheless, will accommodate data centers that will treat the extremely detailed shots taken by the telescope when it sweeps the sky by capturing everything that is in its path.
Vera Rubin could increase the number of known objects in our solar system.
Photo credit, NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory
BBC News visited the Vera Rubin Observatory before the publication of images.
It is located on Cerro Pachón. a mountain of the Chilean Andes which houses several observatories on private land dedicated to space research.
Very high, very dry and very dark. It is the ideal place to observe the stars.
Maintaining this darkness is sacrosanct. The rise. the bus descent of the nightly night road must be vera rubin: first celestial image carried out with caution, because it is prohibited to use the headlights at full power.
The interior of the observatory is no different.
A whole engineering unit is responsible for ensuring that the dome surrounding the telescope. which opens onto the night sky, either in darkness, by turning off the electroluminescent diodes or other parasitic lights which could interfere with the astronomical light captured in the night sky.
The light of the stars is “sufficient” to navigate, explains Elana Urbach, scientist responsible for commissioning.
One of the main objectives of the observatory. she adds, is to “understand the history of the universe”, which means being able to see little bright galaxies or supernova explosions that occurred “billions of years”.
“So we need very clear images,” vera rubin: first celestial image says Elana.
Each detail of the conception of the observatory shows the same precision.
Photo credit. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
He succeeds thanks to his unique design with three mirrors. The light enters the telescope from the night sky, strikes the primary mirror (8.4 m in diameter), is reflected vera rubin: first celestial image on the secondary mirror (3.4 m) and returns to a third mirror (4.8 m) before entering the camera.
Mirrors must be kept in impeccable condition. The slightest grain of dust can alter the quality of the image.
The great reflectivity. Additionally, the speed of this phenomenon allow the telescope to capture a lot of light, which, according to Guillem Megias, an expert in active optics at the observatory, is “very important” to observe very distant objects, which, in astronomy, means that they come from older eras “.
The camera inside the telescope will capture the night sky repeated for ten years. every three days, as part of a “study of space and time”.
1.65 mx 3 m, it weighs 2800 kg and offers a large field of vision.
It will capture an image every 40 seconds approximately. for 8 to 12 hours per night, thanks to the rapid repositioning of the mobile dome and the mount of the telescope.
He has 3. 200 megapixels (67 times more than the camera of an iPhone 16 Pro), which gives him such a resolution that he could capture a golf ball on the moon and that it would take 400 ultra HD television screens to display a single image.
“When we received the first photo here, it was a special moment,” said Megias.
“When I started working on this project, I met someone who has worked there since 1996. I was born in 1997. It makes you realize that it is a project of a generation of astronomers”.
It will be up to hundreds of scientists from around the world to analyze the data alert flow. which will reach a peak of around 10 million per night.
The study will relate to four areas: the mapping of changes in the sky (transient). the formation of the Milky Way, the cartography of the solar system and the understanding of dark matter, that is to say the formation of the universe.
But its greatest strength lies in its constancy. He will study the same areas again and again, and each time he detects a change, he will alert scientists.
Photo credit. RubinObs
“This transitional side is the really new and unique thing that has never been done before. It could show us something that we had not even thought before,” said Professor Heymens.
But it could also contribute to our protection by detecting the dangerous objects which suddenly approach the earth. in particular asteroids such as YR4, whose scientists briefly feared, at the beginning of this year, that they are on the verge of hitting our planet.
The very large mirrors of the camera will help scientists detect the lowest light. the distortions issued by these objects and to follow them as they move in space.
“It is a real revolution. It will be the biggest set of data we have ever had to observe our galaxy. He will fuel our work for many years,” said Professor Alis Deason, of the University of Durham.
She will receive the images to analyze the distance traveled by the stars in the Milky Way.
Currently, most data on stars go back to around 163,000 light years, but Vera Rubin could see up to 1.2 million light years.
Professor Deason also hopes to see the Halo Stellar of the Milky Way. that is to say its cemetery of stars destroyed over vera rubin: first celestial image time, as well as small satellite galaxies which still survive, but which are incredibly weak and difficult to spot.
It is believed that Vera Rubin is powerful enough to finally resolve a long. -standing mystery concerning the existence of the new planet.
This object could be at a distance 700 times higher than the distance between the earth. the sun, far beyond the scope of the other terrestrial telescopes.
“It will take us a lot of time to understand the functioning of this new observatory. But I am ready to welcome it,” said Professor Heymens.
Vera rubin: first celestial image
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