Vera Rubin Observatory with Zeljko Ivezic

What It Covers

Director Zeljko Ivezic explains the Vera Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time, which will scan the entire visible sky every three to four nights for ten years, generating 60 petabytes of data to discover millions of asteroids and billions of galaxies.

Key Questions Answered

• •Asteroid Discovery Capacity: The observatory discovered over 2,000 previously unknown asteroids in just a few nights of testing. During its ten-year mission, it will identify 5 million new asteroids, increasing the known asteroid count by 500% compared to 200 years of previous discoveries, providing critical planetary defense data.
• •Field of View Advantage: The telescope captures an area 1,000 times larger than Hubble in a single image, fitting 45 full moons per frame. This panoramic capability enables complete sky coverage every three to four nights, making it approximately 100 times faster than competing observatories for survey work.
• •Real-Time Alert System: Within 60 seconds of capturing an image in Chile, the data transmits to California for processing. Automated systems compare each new image against previous observations and alert astronomers worldwide to any changes in brightness or motion, enabling immediate follow-up observations across global telescope networks.
• •Data Processing Pipeline: The 3,200-megapixel camera generates images that AI systems analyze for pattern recognition, identifying changes among billions of objects. Each location in the sky receives approximately 1,000 observations over ten years, creating a comprehensive movie that would take one year to watch frame-by-frame at normal speed.
• •Multi-Wavelength Coverage: The telescope observes from 0.4 to 1.1 microns wavelength, capturing everything the human eye sees plus near-infrared. It reserves 2% of observing time for target-of-opportunity observations triggered by gravitational wave detectors and neutrino observatories, enabling multi-messenger astronomy coordination across different detection methods.