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New Eyes on the Sky

The Vera Rubin Observatory is astronomers’ new tool to understand the mysteries of the cosmos.

March 2026

By K.R. Callaway

Jim McMahon/Mapman ®

High in the mountains of Chile, overlooking a barren desert landscape sits the Vera Rubin Observatory. Inside is the world’s largest digital camera. Astronomers are using it to figure out what’s going on in the farthest reaches of our universe. The camera is the size of a minivan and weighs more than 6,000 pounds. It’s part of a colossal telescope with three mirrors that capture and focus light from space. The photos are so detailed, you would need 400 TVs to display every pixel! (Pixels are the units that make up a digital picture.)

The Vera Rubin Observatory is a building high in the mountains of Chile. It looks out over an empty desert landscape. Inside is the world’s largest digital camera. Astronomers are using it to look at the farthest reaches of our universe. The camera is the size of a minivan. It weighs more than 6,000 pounds! It’s part of a colossal telescope that also includes three mirrors. These capture and focus light from space. The resulting photos are extremely detailed. You would need 400 TVs to display every pixel! (Pixels are the units that make up a digital picture.)

RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/NSF/DOE/AURA/P. Horálek

The Vera Rubin Observatory sits atop a mountain in Chile.

After almost 20 years of planning and building, the Rubin Observatory released its first images last June. Over the next 10 years, astronomers will take about 1,000 pictures of the sky every night. They’ll combine these images together to make a time lapse movie of the universe. It will teach us how our universe is changing over time.

The first images from this movie show colorful clouds of gas and bright galaxies. Scientists are already excited for the next set of pictures. “It will really help us to get a better idea of what else is out there,” says Michaela Musilova, an astrobiologist who studies the possibility of life in space.

The Rubin Observatory took almost 20 years to plan and build. This past June, it finally released its first images. Over the next 10 years, astronomers will take about 1,000 pictures of the sky every night. Then they’ll combine the images. This will create a time lapse movie of the universe. It will teach us how our universe is changing over time.

The first images show colorful clouds of gas and bright galaxies. Scientists are already excited for the next set. “It will really help us to get a better idea of what else is out there,” says Michaela Musilova. She’s a scientist who studies the possibility of life in space.

What You Need to Know About the Universe

Watch a video to learn about what's beyond Earth.

Scientists expect the data gathered by the Rubin Observatory will help explain a mysterious substance called dark matter. Matter is anything that has mass and takes up space, but dark matter is invisible. Even though no one has ever seen it, researchers are confident dark matter exists because it interacts with visible matter. Dark matter bends light and helps determine the shape and movement of galaxies.

Scientists hope the data gathered by the Rubin Observatory will help explain a few things. One is the mysterious substance called dark matter. Matter is anything that has mass and takes up space. But dark matter is invisible. Even though no one has ever seen it, researchers know it exists because it has effects on visible matter. Dark matter bends light and influences the shape and movement of galaxies.

The first person to notice these galactic interactions were a part of every galaxy was an astronomer named Vera Rubin, who the observatory is named after. When Rubin became an astronomer in the 1950s, there weren’t as many women working in science as there are today. Rubin’s kindness and perseverance made her a role model, says Deidre Hunter, an astronomer who worked with Rubin at Lowell Observatory in Arizona.

The Vera Rubin Observatory also made history: It’s the first American-owned observatory to be named after a woman. Hunter hopes this will inspire the next generation of women in science. “Anybody can be a scientist,” Hunter says. “Keep going, and don’t let anybody stop you.”

The first person to notice these effects was an astronomer named Vera Rubin. The observatory is named after her. When Rubin became an astronomer in the 1950s, there weren’t many women working in science. Rubin’s kindness and perseverance made her a role model, says Deidre Hunter, an astronomer who worked with her.

The Vera Rubin Observatory also made history. It’s the first American-owned observatory named after a woman. Hunter hopes this will inspire the next generation of women in science. “Anybody can be a scientist,” says Hunter. “Keep going, and don’t let anybody stop you.”

WRITING SCIENTIFIC NOTATION

Scientists often write very large numbers—like sizes of astronomical objects or distances in space—in scientific notation. Numbers written in scientific notation are expressed as values multiplied by a power of 10.

EXAMPLE

Vera Rubin found evidence of dark matter while studying the Andromeda galaxy, which is 2,500,000 light-years from Earth. What’s that in scientific notation?

Write It

Move the decimal point left or right until the number is greater than or equal to 1 but less than 10. Round to the nearest tenth. This number is a. The number of places you moved the decimal point is n. When moving right, n is negative. When moving left, n is positive.

a = 2.5, n = 6 2.5 × 10⁶

So it’s 2.5 × 10⁶ in scientific notation.

WRITING SCIENTIFIC NOTATION

EXAMPLE

Vera Rubin found evidence of dark matter while studying the Andromeda galaxy, which is 2,500,000 light-years from Earth. What’s that in scientific notation?

Write It

a = 2.5, n = 6 2.5 × 10⁶

So it’s 2.5 × 10⁶ in scientific notation.

Write numbers about the Vera Rubin Observatory in scientific notation. Round all a values to the nearest tenth when necessary. Record your work and answers on our answer sheet.

Write numbers about the Vera Rubin Observatory in scientific notation. Round all a values to the nearest tenth when necessary. Record your work and answers on our answer sheet.

Digital images are made of units called pixels. The observatory’s pictures have about 3,200,000,000 pixels. What’s that in scientific notation?

The telescope’s largest mirror, which gathers and focuses the light, weighs about 37,000 pounds. What’s that in scientific notation?

A computer system scans the images and issues alerts to let scientists know if an object has changed brightness or position. There will be about 10,000,000 alerts per night. What’s that in scientific notation?