Rubin Observatory Starts Its Decade of Discovery

Rutgers astrophysicists will use a vast stream of images and data collected at the Rubin observatory in Chile to advance understanding of the universe and how it changes

A powerful new observatory in Chile has begun a 10-year survey of the southern sky, and Rutgers astrophysicists are among the scientists who will use its vast stream of images and data to explore some of the deepest mysteries of the universe.

Jack Hughes, a Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences, says the Vera C. Rubin Observatory marks the beginning of a scientific enterprise that could shape astronomy for a generation.

The NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of Energy (DOE), has launched the Legacy Survey of Space and Time, known as LSST. The survey will repeatedly photograph nearly the entire southern sky, creating the most comprehensive time-lapse record of the universe ever attempted.

Rubin Observatory released its first images on June 23, 2025, a milestone known as "First Look." Now, following months of final testing and preparation, the observatory has begun the 10-year survey those images were designed to make possible.

Rutgers is a longtime member of the LSST Discovery Alliance, an international consortium of universities and astronomical institutions working to advance science using Rubin Observatory. Rutgers researchers also belong to the LSST Dark Energy Science Collaboration, among other Rubin science collaborations, and participate in a regional partnership with scientists at Columbia University and the City University of New York.

"This is the moment when years of engineering, development and construction become a living scientific enterprise," said Jack Hughes, a Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences. "It is rare to watch a facility begin work that could shape an entire field for a generation. Rutgers faculty and students will be part of that work, pursuing questions we already know how to ask and following discoveries we cannot yet imagine."

Located on Cerro Pachón, a mountain in Chile, Rubin Observatory will scan the sky every few nights for the next decade. Its 3,200-megapixel camera, the largest digital camera ever built, can produce a detailed image every 40 seconds.

Saurabh Jha, a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, says the Vera C. Rubin Observatory will help researchers catch images of exploding stars, flaring black holes and other fast-moving cosmic events as they happen.

By returning to the same regions of the sky repeatedly, the observatory will allow scientists to detect changes that a single image could never reveal. These may include stars that brighten and fade, supernova explosions and asteroids moving through the solar system. It could feature black holes consuming matter and events that have never previously been observed.

"The universe is always changing," said Saurabh Jha, a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. "Stars explode, black holes flare and objects move across the sky, often on timescales that make them easy to miss. Rubin gives us the cadence and reach to catch those events as they happen. For those of us who observe the dynamic universe, the prospect is genuinely thrilling."

Jha studies Type Ia supernovae, exploding stars whose brightness allows astronomers to measure cosmic distances and reconstruct the expansion history of the universe. Observations of these supernovae helped scientists discover that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, a phenomenon attributed to the still-unexplained force known as dark energy.

Hughes plans to use Rubin observations of galaxy clusters together with information from the Simons Observatory, another facility in Chile. Galaxy clusters, which can contain hundreds or thousands of galaxies, provide scientists with valuable evidence about the distribution of both normal and dark matter and the evolution of the universe.

Eric Gawiser, also a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, will study how the billions of galaxies detected by Rubin are distributed in space to investigate the nature of dark energy and to learn how modern galaxies like the Milky Way were formed.

Eric Gawiser, a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, will use billions of galaxies detected by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory to study dark energy and how galaxies such as the Milky Way formed.

"The unprecedented scale of Rubin's galaxy census will reveal how matter is arranged across the universe with far greater precision," Gawiser said. "The data volume is enormous, which makes collaboration, advanced computing and machine learning essential. Somewhere in that stream will be discoveries no one thought to search for, and that is one of the most exciting promises of this survey."

Each night, Rubin Observatory is expected to collect about 10 terabytes of data and eventually generate as many as 7 million alerts identifying objects that have moved, appeared, disappeared or changed in brightness.

Those alerts will flow into automated systems known as alert brokers, which classify the changes and help astronomers decide which events deserve immediate follow-up observations from other telescopes. This rapid response will be especially important for studying fleeting phenomena such as stellar explosions.

The observatory also is expected to become a powerful engine of solar system discovery, identifying large numbers of previously unknown asteroids, comets and other objects.

Over the full survey, Rubin will revisit each region of the sky roughly 800 times. When the project is complete, its database is expected to contain billions of astronomical objects and trillions of individual measurements.

The scale and accessibility of the information will create opportunities for Rutgers undergraduate and graduate students as well as faculty researchers. Working with Rubin data will require expertise spanning astronomy, physics, statistics, computer science, data science and machine learning.

This video shows a field of stars in the constellation Lupus, along with faint clouds of gas and dust known as galactic cirrus. Taken with the Vera C. Rubin Observatory's LSST Camera, the world's largest digital camera, it captures objects ranging from nearby stars to distant galaxies.

Credit: NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory/NOIRLab/SLAC/AURA

The survey's official start followed a period of system optimization and a review of image quality, survey speed, reliability, calibration and data-system performance.

"It is amazing and humbling to be here at this time and place as we start the Legacy Survey of Space and Time, after more than two decades of incredible work by our dedicated team," said Bob Blum, director of Rubin Observatory at the National Science Foundation's National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, or NSF's NOIRLab. "Rubin Observatory is for everyone. The LSST will change how we do astronomy and astrophysics, allowing researchers anywhere to participate in cutting-edge science."

Explore more of the ways Rutgers research is shaping the future.