Vera C. Rubin Observatory begins 10‑year Legacy Survey of Space and Time

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in northern Chile has officially started the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), a decade‑long program that will image the southern sky every 40 seconds using the world’s largest digital camera, which weighs about 6,600 lb and is the size of a small car. Each night the camera will capture thousands of images, creating a time‑lapse panorama that scientists say will help study dark matter, dark energy, asteroids, supernovae and other rare cosmic events. The effort is jointly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy, with an $800 million budget, and the observatory sits at 8,800 ft on Cerro Pachón. “Today, we begin filming the greatest cosmic movie ever made,” said Brian Stone, acting NSF director. Project lead Željko Ivezić noted the start follows extensive system optimization and validation. Researchers will use AI to filter the data and expect about 7 million alerts each night, ultimately delivering billions of objects and trillions of measurements to the global scientific community.