back to article World's largest camera shows galaxy in 3,200 megapixel glory as Rubin telescope goes online

High on a Chilean mountain the Vera C. Rubin Observatory is, at last, photographing the galaxy and the first shots have found 2,104 new asteroids in the Solar System in its initial ten hours of operation. "Building the world's largest digital camera will allow scientists to explore the cosmos in new ways and at a scale that …

  1. Eclectic Man Silver badge
    Pint

    Rubin Observatory

    Their website is here: https://rubinobservatory.org

    Lovely animation of newly discovered asteroids, and explanation of how they made the 8m mirror.

    Great to see the images, loads more to come!

    They deserve a barrel of the good stuff.

  2. LoPath
    Mushroom

    Oh no!

    Why do these asteroids look like they're getting bigger? Quick, turn it off!

    1. Lee D Silver badge

      Re: Oh no!

      That's what happens when you let Del Boy buy a cheap statellite...

    2. ITMA Silver badge
      Devil

      Re: Oh no!

      Jurassic Park:

      "Objects in mirror are closer than they appear"

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml6zKbPLxlc

      ;)

      1. Philo T Farnsworth Silver badge
  3. NXM Silver badge

    Dark Matter

    I thought I'd found a load of this the other day under the sofa, but it turned out to be a massive heap of dog fur.

    1. milliemoo83
      Joke

      Re: Dark Matter

      "Turns out there weren't any black holes."

      "What as it?"

      "Grit."

  4. Paul Herber Silver badge

    I suspect this telescope will point us at the fine details of the end of the universe as we know it, viz. women wanting to study at Princeton in the 1940s!

    1. kmorwath

      Yes, I'm always surprised how USA was so late to admit women. Even in Italy in 1945 women can attend university and get a degree in Physics with a thesis on Cepheid variables.

      1. Don Jefe

        That’s a function of religion. American Christianism is quite different than the rest of the world. Fundamentalist Christianism is its own thing. It’s not Protestant (it was created to displace Protestantism), not Catholic (they don’t think Catholics are Christian), and not Orthodox (they’re idol worshippers). Fundamentalists have gradually subsumed the governing bodies of the mainstream sects.

        It focuses on the negative aspects of Pauline scripture and the Old Testament. Women are capable, but they cannot lead and must remain silent. The New Testament verses they use refer to women’s behavior in church, but Fundamentalism doesn’t acknowledge a secular world. They live in church all the time “wherever two or three are gathered”. Therefore, women must remain silent and defer to men in all things.

        It’s a big issue, even today. These beliefs permeate government at all levels and are prevalent in the finance sector as well.

        1. HelpfulJohn

          Quick question ...

          "Women are capable, but they cannot lead and must remain silent."

          Has anyone pointed this out to the loud Congress-critters who are, apparently, female?

          Or to the majority who are, apparently, not? Just so those ones can then mention it to the female ones?

          I'm not against ladies speaking, I actually like a few of them but if it's their *religion* ...

    2. Eclectic Man Silver badge
      Unhappy

      re: the end of the universe as we know it

      If Friedrich Nietzsche is right, we're doomed.

      From 'On the genealogy of morals'

      "... The predominance of mandarins is never a good sign: just as little as the advent of democracy, of international courts of peace instead of wars, of equal rights for women, of the religion of compassion, and whatever other symptoms there are of life in decline. ..."

      Page 120 of the OUP English translation by Douglas Smith, ISBN 978-0-19-953708-2

      I am not a fan of Nietzsche.

    3. DS999 Silver badge

      It wasn't only Vera Rubin, without Henrietta Leavitt's work we would never have been able to measure the distance to anything outside our galaxy. And others of course, some of who never got proper credit because the male astronomers "overseeing" their work stole it.

      1. Paul Herber Silver badge
        Angel

        As any fule know, allowing a woman to think at that level will make her brain explode. This probably explains the big bang theory.

      2. HelpfulJohn

        Pulsars being a fine example of this.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Primera Luz

      I thought it rather fitting in this context that "first light" is apparently feminine in Spanish.

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Princeton U. didn't admit women as undergraduates until 1974. The Ivy League universities like to portray themselves as liberal and egalitarian but the reality is that they are bastions of privilege and legacy power.

  5. Pascal Monett Silver badge
    Trollface

    "2,104 new asteroids"

    Quick ! We need $200 billion to build an Earth Defense Network !

  6. 897241021271418289475167044396734464892349863592355648549963125148587659264921474689457046465304467

    Where can I download the full resolution version of this pic? I'd like to cut it into zillions of ickle bity sections to print and cover my town with, so when viewed from some point between, the Trifid Nebula looks mirrored to befuddle invaders.

    https://regmedia.co.uk/2025/06/24/galaxy1.jpg

  7. Michael Hoffmann Silver badge
    Meh

    I watched the live feed of the announcement and couldn't help but do so with a clenched fist:

    All these NASA talking heads spruiking up "science for the future and to motivate the next generation" ad nauseam. While having been slashed into oblivion and in a country that is on a speed-run back to the dark ages.

    I hope other countries are ready to take up the slack, including running the VCR.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Making Amazing Galaxies Accessible

    If only that’s what it stood for.

  9. Potemkine! Silver badge
    Alien

    find the elements of dark matter and dark energy that make up our universe.

    That may make up our universe. There's no proof yet both exist.

    My explanation for the effect of expansion acceleration is that we are in a multiverse and other universes gravity is acting on our universe and makes it expand. No dark energy, just gravity, and the more our universe expands, the closer it is from other universes, the bigger the gravity effect is, the faster is expansion occurring.

    For dark matter, it's the interaction of parallel universes interacting with ours.

  10. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge
    Alert

    Don't Look!

    ...at the Meteor shower[the new Asteroids].

    The Day of the Triffids is Nigh!

    1. Anonymous Anti-ANC South African Coward Silver badge

      Re: Don't Look!

      Need to re-read the book... now where have I put it????

  11. Anonymous Anti-ANC South African Coward Silver badge

    Schoolboy humour

    "The observatory is sited on the El Peñón peak"...

    *sniggers*

  12. HelpfulJohn

    That's a lot.

    "The camera in the instrument weighs 2,800 kilograms (6,200 pounds) ..."

    That's just less than the Earth's StarGate. It's a tiny bit more than my digital camera weighs and I thought carrying that around was tiring.

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