#lsst

[mindblowingscience]

Vera C Rubin Observatory reveals 1st stunning images of the cosmos. Scientists are 'beyond excited about what's coming'

"We enter the era of astro-cinematography."

The LSST will revolutionize astronomy with one of its primary aims being the investigation of dark energy, the mysterious force driving the accelerating expansion of the universe, and dark matter, the strange substance that accounts for 85% of the "stuff" in the cosmos but remains effectively invisible. From its perch atop Cerro Pachón in Chile, a mountain that rises around 5,200 feet (1,600 meters) above sea level, Rubin scans the entire night sky over the Southern Hemisphere once every three nights. This endeavor will be the most extensive continuous mapping of the southern sky ever attempted, and will be conducted by Rubin using the 8.4-meter Simonyi Survey Telescope and the LSST camera (LSSTCam), the largest digital camera ever constructed at around the size of a small car.

Continue Reading.

[blasteffect]

Asteroid 2025 MN45,

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory has discovered the fastest-spinning asteroid ever over 500 meters in size.

Dubbed 2025 MN45, it is a 710 meter long object found in the main asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars, and it rotates every 1.88 minutes. This discovery, along with that of 18 other fast rotators, represents the first published science results from the Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), and was released January 7, 2026 in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. The data was taken in April and May 2025, during the commissioning of the Simonyi Survey Telescope’s instruments.

The public got a first look at Rubin’s capabilities back in June 2025, but the real 10-year observing campaign starts in 2026.

In normal circumstances, objects in the asteroid belt tend to spin below 2.2 hours per rotation, in what is known as the spin barrier. Spinning faster than this usually results in an asteroid breaking up into smaller pieces, or splitting into a binary object.

The spin barrier is determined by several factors, including the ratio of icy to rocky material within an object, its size, and whether the asteroid is a single solid chunk or a rubble pile of tiny pieces. Astronomers believe ‘rubble piles’ are the most common type of asteroid, but with its fast spin time, 2025 MN45 is definitively not one.

Artistic representation © NOIRLab

[octarineblues]

vera rubin observatory ily

[esenciade-vainilla]

Vera C. Rubin first light (un pedacito de esta preciosura de primera foto)

[nelc]

The complete focal plane of the future LSST [Legacy Survey of Space and Time] Camera is more than 2 feet wide and contains 189 individual sensors that will produce 3,200-megapixel images. Crews at SLAC have now taken the first images with it. Explore them in full resolution using the links at the bottom of the press release. (Jacqueline Orrell/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)

[intelligentliving]

Picture of Cauliflower Paves The Way To Solving Cosmic Mysteries

While the lens of the world’s most giant digital camera made its debut last year, its sensors have taken until now to develop. But finally, the Stanford researchers involved with assembling the sensors array took the first photographs, proving that hard work pays off. The camera isn’t complete yet, but...

[therealuniverse]

Assembling the imaging system of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope camera, aka the Vera Rubin Observatory. In testing, it captured a 3200 megapixel shot, so large that displaying it at 4k resolution would require ~378 TV screens. This camera will capture an image of the universe like that every night for 10 years (assuming it isn't blocked out by large satellite constellations).

[strange-lights-and-stardust]

So Land Sea Sky Travel does wonderful conferences under the Celtic Polytheism umbrella, and the owner is a personal friend of mine. 

I was telling a (different) friend “Gwyn’s conference is next on the schedule” only I almost said “on the menu” and considering I just wrote a poem about theophagy, I find that hilarious. Really hungering for some deerkult venison I guess.

Said poem will be on my wordpress tomorrow.