The team of the Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile published its first images on Monday, revealing breathtaking views of distant galaxies and regions where the stars are formed.
This giant telescope funded by the National Foundation for Science and the United States Energy Ministry is located in Chile, an ideal place to observe the cosmos, thanks to a low cloud cover and a dry climate.
After having set out more than 20 years to emerge, the observatory published its first images, including that of the nebula trifide and the nebula of the lagoon, to several thousand light years of the earth. This composite image of a bright pink on a red-orange background is the result of 678 shots made in the space of seven hours.
It reveals these children’s nursery within our Milky Way in an unprecedented level of detail, making it clearly visible elements never observed before.
Another image offers an incredible view of the cluster of Galaxies of the Virgin. The observatory team has also published a video called “cosmic treasure chest” beginner with a close -up on two galaxies which ends up gradually revealing about ten million more.
We see the universe “teeming with stars and galaxies. The apparently empty black pockets, space between the stars in the night sky when you look without help, are transformed here into scintillating tapestries”, said Zeljko Ivezic, director of the construction of the Vera Rubin observatory.
The spiral, elliptical and cluster galaxies appear in lively tones of red, blue and orange. These colors reveal key details such as distance and size with unequaled precision, helping scientists better understand the history of the expansion of the universe.
The colors do not correspond exactly to what the naked eye would see, explains the scientist Federica Bianco, because the telescope captures a much wider range of wavelengths. They are rather representative: the infrared is in red to represent colder objects, while the ultraviolet is in blue to indicate the hotter objects.
-“Investment” –
“The Rubin Observatory is an investment in our future, which will today lay the cornerstone of knowledge on which our children will proudly build tomorrow,” said Michael Kratsios, the head of scientific and technological policy at the White House.
Equipped with an 8.4 -meter telescope and the largest astronomical camera never built in the world, the observatory is based on a powerful data processing system.
Later in the year, he will start the “The Legacy Survey of Space and Time” project (LSST), which will allow, in the next decade, to sweep the sky every night, to capture the most subtle changes with unequaled precision.
The Vera C. Rubin observatory is called the American astronomer who discovered dark matter, a mysterious matter which acts as a cement of galaxies, preventing that the stars are ejected.
Black energy is a force responsible for the expansion of the universe. Together, energy and dark matter are supposed to constitute 95%.
“By observing up to 20 billion galaxies, we will study how the light of these distant galaxies has reached us. The light of almost all galaxies has been bent by the gravitational interaction of dark matter that permeates the universe”, thus being able to light these cosmic mysteries, said scientist Aaron Roodman.
The observatory is also considered one of the most powerful instruments to follow asteroids.
In just ten hours, he discovered 2,104 new asteroids in our solar system, including seven close to the earth and representing no danger.
All other combined observatories, whether in space or on earth, discover around 20,000 new asteroids per year.
It should also be the most effective in identifying interstellar objects crossing our solar system.
Chile welcomes telescopes of more than 30 countries, including some of the most advanced astronomical instruments in the world, including the Alma Observatory, the most powerful radiotelescope on the planet.
Another major project, the Extremely Large Telescope, should enter into service in 2027 and promises to explore cosmic distances so far inaccessible.
Posted on June 23 at 11:57 p.m., AFP
