Vera C. Rubin Observatory Begins 10‑Year Cosmic Time‑Lapse Survey

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile has started the first phase of a ten‑year Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). The project, funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy, aims to create the most detailed time‑lapse of the night sky by repeatedly imaging the entire southern hemisphere every few days.

Equipped with an 8.4‑meter primary mirror and a 3,200‑megapixel digital camera—the largest ever built for scientific use—the telescope will capture changes in stars, galaxies, asteroids and other celestial bodies. Researchers plan to discover unknown near‑Earth asteroids, probe the nature of dark matter and dark energy, and monitor transient phenomena. LSST chief scientist Željko Ivezić noted that the observatory’s field of view is about a hundred times larger than comparable telescopes, allowing sky mapping roughly a hundred times faster than current instruments.