NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory

Officially in our Operations era✨

NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory has concluded its Construction phase & entered Early Operations.

While day-to-day work continues, this milestone marks the home stretch of final fine-tuning ahead of the start of the ten-year LSST, just months away! 🔭🧪

Observing Specialist Gonzalo Aravena shares his family’s pride in his work and their happiness with life in La Serena, where he was drawn by the opportunity ... Meet Gonzalo Aravena, Observing Specialist | Rubin Construction Archives

Meet Observing Specialist Gonzalo Aravena! 🎉

In this video, he reflects on happiness with life in La Serena since joining NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory, and how Rubin’s vast scale and scientific potential continue to impress him 🔭🧪

🎥 Meet Gonzalo: https://youtu.be/4p6HDY-4YiE

Something’s a little sus… 👀

Flares, flashes, and fakes — not every change in the night sky is what it seems 💥✨

Test your skills with Rubin Difference Detectives on Zooniverse! Help Rubin scientists spot cosmic events (and catch the imposters). 🌌🔍

👉 zooniverse.org/rubin

Two countries, one observatory 🌎🔭

Mechanical Engineer Margaux Lopez started at SLAC in California and moved to Chile in 2019 to help build the NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory. 🔭🧪

Learn about the challenges and curiosity that drive her work!
🎥 Meet Margaux https://youtu.be/Lk8bgNQtcEo

Today isn't just #Halloween🎃, it's also #DarkMatterDay!

Dark matter interacts via gravity, so while we can’t see it directly, we know it’s there.

NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory's 10-year survey will measure distortions in billions of galaxies, revealing where dark matter is hiding.🔭🧪

A decade of discovery and dedication! 🌎🔭

Sandrine Thomas, Deputy Director for NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory Construction, reflects on her path — moving from France to the US, traveling to Chile, and sharing her work with her family.

🎥 Meet Sandrine https://youtu.be/_r-e0kzYjf4

Some galaxies love to hog the spotlight, but sometimes we see past them! 🔭

In this image from the #RubinFirstLook Cosmic Treasure Chest, a distant galaxy peeks from behind a large foreground galaxy.

This "layered" view helps scientists understand the 3D structure of the Universe 🌌🔭🧪

A boot-shaped observatory against a sunset sky. The sky is lighter and blue on the right, transitioning to dark with twinkling stars on the left.

What if you could capture a two-hour sunset in a single photo?

This composite was built from ~6,000 photos taken on a night in mid-July, each contributing just one column of pixels.

Look closely and you’ll spot stars starting to twinkle in the upper left as the night begins ✨🔭🧪

A sprawling field of galaxies fills the deep black of space, dotted with glowing stars and colorful smudges of light. Near the top, a smooth golden elliptical galaxy glows like polished stone, linked by delicate, taffy-like streams of stars to nearby galaxies below—evidence of ancient cosmic collisions.

We come with receipts🧾

Tidal tails are cosmic “receipts” of galactic drama, showing who collided with whom. Rubin's camera is sharp enough to catch wind of even the faintest intergalactic tea.

No need to worry about "pics or it didn't happen" with Rubin keeping a close eye 😎 🔭🧪

Fast, precise, unstoppable! ⚡🔭

Freddy Muñoz, who leads NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory's mechanical team on the summit, discusses how the speed of Rubin's Simonyi Survey Telescope will let us capture more objects in the Universe than ever before. 🔭🧪

🎥 Meet Freddy https://youtu.be/Vg7ZgU4y-dg

Alert Stream | Rubin Observatory Explore how Rubin Observatory will identify changes in the night sky—and let the world know about them within minutes.

These software systems process the alerts, add additional info, and let users filter alerts to match their interests — the cosmic version of following hashtags or channels. ✨🔭🧪

Learn more about alerts: rubinobservatory.org/explore/how-...

Instead of keeping it to themselves, your friend posts a notification: “Something changed here!” That’s the alert.🎉

But space is busy, so Rubin generates millions of alerts every night! 😲 That’s where Rubin’s “alert brokers” come in.🔭🧪

How do Rubin alerts work? 🌌📲

Think of Rubin Observatory as a friend constantly scrolling through the Universe’s social media feed. Every minute, they refresh and see what’s new — an asteroid has moved, a star has changed in brightness...or maybe even exploded in a supernova. 🔭🧪

During its 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), Rubin is expected to capture about 10 million supernovae 💥

The Universe is about to get a lot more exciting 😎

This photo was this week's NOIRLab #ImageOfTheWeek
📷: RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/NSF/DOE/AURA/P. Horálek

🔭🧪

A boot-shaped observatory perched on its rocky mountain summit site under a star-filled sky with the Milky Way galaxy arching overhead.

Eye on the southern sky 🌌

NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory is like a cosmic watchtower, capturing the entire visible sky every few nights.

Before, scientists would spend their careers looking for supernovae. But Rubin will accomplish in minutes or hours what used to take a lifetime! 🔭🧪

Designing how Rubin decides what to observe and when🔭

Meet Tiago Ribeiro, Scheduler Scientist and Software Architect at NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory.

In this video, he shares his path from professor in Brazil to shaping large-scale projects like Rubin.

🎥 https://youtu.be/EnxGm5MtXjE

50+ years supporting astronomy in Chile 🌌🇨🇱

Hernán Bustos Binvignat, recently-retired Deputy Director at AURA in Chile — the organization that manages NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory — reflects on a career dedicated to world-class astronomy. 🔭🧪

🎥 Meet Hernán https://youtu.be/AoXYTPHsQwE

Large boot-shaped observatory with a massive telescope dome reflecting orange and golden sunset light atop its rocky mountain site.

Large boot-shaped observatory with a massive telescope dome atop its rocky mountain site, with the golden glow of sunset over the rolling peaks in the distance.

Large boot-shaped observatory on a rocky mountain peak during a vibrant sunset with layered mountain ranges in the background.

Drone shot of a massive teal telescope within an observatory's dome with a vertical opening, surrounded by winding mountain roads and dry terrain.

Golden hour hits different above 2600 meters. ✨🌅

NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory basks in that sunset ✨glow✨ at its site on Cerro Pachón. And with over 300 clear nights on average per year here, that's a lot of sunset basking we get to do! 🔭🧪

A boot-shaped observatory sits atop its dry mountain site under a twilight sky filled with stars. The observatory’s open dome reveals the telescope inside, with a donut-shaped calibration screen mounted to the inside of the dome and illuminated by soft blue light. The surrounding mountains are silhouetted against the fading glow of sunset on the horizon.

NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory is incredible, but we try to stay down to Earth...😉

How does Rubin take sharp images of the cosmos from the ground? Computer-controlled actuators adjust its mirrors and camera against wind or gravity in real time, keeping everything perfectly aligned. 💨🪞✨

📷:
1. NSF–DOE RubinObs/SLAC/NOIRLab/AURA/H. Stockebrand
2. NSF–DOE RubinObs/SLAC/NOIRLab/AURA/P. Horálek
3. NSF–DOE RubinObs/SLAC/NOIRLab/AURA/Y. AlSayyad
4. NSF–DOE RubinObs/SLAC/NOIRLab/AURA
5. NSF–DOE RubinObs/SLAC/NOIRLab/AURA/P. Horálek

A wide-angle night panorama of Rubin Observatory on a rocky mountain peak, with a dirt road curving around from left to right. The full moon glows brightly near the horizon on the right, illuminating the landscape. Overhead, the Milky Way arcs across the sky, glowing with dense star fields, dark dust lanes, and red emission nebulae. The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds appear as bright fuzzy patches below the arcing band of the Milky Way.

Our Solar System has millions of wandering asteroids and comets that are small, far away, and usually dark. Rubin Observatory excels at detecting faint objects, and it’ll find 10-100 times more Solar System objects than were known before! 🔭🧪

The yellow disc of the full moon dominates the image. The moon has nearly risen above the horizon running along the bottom of the image, but is just cut off from being a perfect circle at the bottom. Rubin Observatory is silhouetted toward the right side of the moon, shaped like a boot with low service building extending to the right and shiny angular dome sticking up. A small-looking crane sits to the left of the observatory.

A composite image shows the Vera C. Rubin Observatory on Cerro Pachón in Chile beneath a clear blue sky. Multiple exposures of the Moon, taken over time, form a diagonal trail across the sky, showing its motion as it sets. The observatory’s large, angular dome and surrounding rocky peaks stand out against the mountainous horizon in the distance.

The sliver of a crescent moon hangs above a dark horizon next to a silhouetted Rubin Observatory amid a firey orange sky

The yellow orb of the moon glows just above the horizon to the left of a white observatory building on a rocky landscape with a silver dome shining in the moonlight. The horizon cuts through the center of the image, and sparse clouds add interest to the blue-tinted sky.

It's International #ObserveTheMoon Night! 🌙

The Moon is dazzlingly bright — so bright that NSF-DOE Rubin Observatory will never point at it. But there are many Solar System objects that are incredibly faint, and that’s where Rubin shines.🔭🧪

And when it comes to the number of discoveries Rubin scientists will make about dark matter…the limit does not exist! ✨ 🔭🧪

That’s where NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory comes in. We’re not a regular observatory, we’re a cool observatory! 🔭🧪

The 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) will measure observed distortions in billions of galaxies, revealing where the invisible dark matter is hiding.

📷: W. O'Mullane

large scale structure in the universe shows a weblike distribution of galaxies surrounded by invisible dark matter

Dark matter is the mysterious substance in the Universe that only interacts with regular matter (like you and us) via gravity. We can’t see it directly, but we see its influence as it bends light across the cosmos.🔭🧪

A boot-shaped observatory atop its mountain site at twilight. The sky glows in gradients of purple, pink, and orange as the sun sets behind the mountains in the distance. Stars begin to appear above the angular, open observatory dome, which is illuminated against the colorful horizon.

Is dark matter a carb?

No, Gretchen, it's not, but we're trying to figure out what it is!

At 85% percent of the Universe's mass and energy, it's sort of like Gretchen's hair: big and full of secrets. 🔭🧪

📷: W. O'Mullane

Keeping NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory running takes critical systems working seamlessly behind the scenes ⚡🔧

Franco Colleoni, Electronic Engineer, shares the rewarding aspects of his work on Rubin's vital systems. 🔭🧪

🎥 Meet Franco: https://youtu.be/NMPBIBF2vdw

Rubin Observatory's huge 8.4-meter telescope points at the in-dome calibration screen. On the right, and tilted left nearly to horizontal, the telescope is a huge, teal steel structure with a top and middle ring supported by thick beams connected to the telescope base. On the left, the calibration screen is a large white donut shape slightly wider than the top end of the telescope.

That way, scientists know the amount of signal that's due to the camera itself and can remove it from the raw images, leaving science-ready images that contain only the light from the cosmos✨🔭 🧪

📸 for all: NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory/NOIRLab/SLAC/AURA/W. O'Mullane

An ominous blue donut-shaped ring glows ominously in the dark to the left. To the right, Rubin's large steel telescope mount structure is barely visible, softly illuminated by the blue glow.

When the LSST Camera takes an image, it also gets signal from itself, including faint heat (aka infrared light!) or natural variations between pixels.🔭 🧪

By reflecting the same, controlled amount of light onto every pixel, this calibration screen reveals those variations.

An ominous blue donut-shaped ring glows ominously in the dark to the right. To the left, Rubin's large steel telescope mount structure is barely visible, softly illuminated by the blue glow.

The screen is lit by specific LEDs that test all 3.2 billion pixels of the LSST Camera.

For each of the camera’s six filters, scientists use a different LED combination to see exactly how every pixel responds across the full rainbow of light.🔭 🧪

But why does this matter?