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Rubin Observatory LSST Survey Advances

Updated 2 times since CLSTR started tracking revisions of this situation.

What changed

2026-08-03 19:22 UTC → 2026-08-09 18:03 UTC · added removed

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile officially began its ten‑year ten-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) on 30 June 2026, after following a year‑long commissioning phase that included mirror‑cooling adjustments addressed mirror-cooling and minor earthquake‑related earthquake-related interruptions. The 8.4‑metre telescope, equipped with the world’s largest digital camera – a 3.2‑gigapixel, 3‑tonne instrument the size of 8.4-metre telescope utilizes a small car – now captures 700‑800 3.2-gigapixel camera to capture 700-800 exposures of the southern sky each night, nightly, generating about approximately 10 TB of data and millions of AI‑filtered AI-filtered alerts for transients, asteroids regarding asteroids, supernovae, and supernovae. other transients. Early observations have already catalogued more than 11 000 over 11,000 new asteroids (including asteroids, including 33 near‑Earth objects) near-Earth objects, and 380 trans‑Neptunian trans-Neptunian bodies. International partners from 27 countries contribute computing power and scientific expertise, supporting support the survey’s goals survey's mission to map dark matter, matter and dark energy, search for the hypothesised Planet Nine, and study black holes and supernovae. holes. In early August 2026 2026, the observatory released entered the Early Data Preview 2, a 2 (EDP2) phase with the release of its first deep co‑added science image and catalog of the COSMOS field. Located in the constellation Sextans away from the Milky Way’s dusty plane, this field was selected to provide a clear view of the deep universe. The mosaic, compiled from testing‑phase exposures taken between April 2025 and January 2026. The new mosaic shows over 650 000 galaxies and 2026, reveals more than 50 000 stars, 500,000 to 650,000 galaxies and the approximately 50,000 stars. The processing also identified 2 104 2,104 previously unknown asteroids, underscoring the survey’s unprecedented depth and its value asteroids. Technical operations for transient‑phenomena research. All data are openly released the LSST camera involve 189 science CCD sensors chilled to -100°C to minimize thermal noise. While the global scientific community, establishing a time‑resolved map of billions EDP2 is not yet part of celestial objects that will serve astrophysics the full Legacy Survey, the validated dataset is available for decades. scientific query by researchers in Chile, the United States, and globally.

Versions

  1. 2026-08-09 18:03 UTC Rubin Observatory LSST Survey Advances
  2. 2026-08-03 19:22 UTC Rubin Observatory LSST Survey Advances
  3. 2026-08-01 15:35 UTC Rubin Observatory LSST Survey Advances

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