The Biggest Camera in the World

The Biggest Camera in the World

Photography is now part of everday life because of digital cameras and smartphones.

We take quick and easy images for our social media.

Image result for smartphone camera

But now there’s a camera that makes others look like an old Box Brownie.

It’s simply the biggest camera in the world.

And it will change our view of the universe.

Welcome to the Vera C Rubin Observatory.

Who was Vera Rubin?

Vera Rubin was an American astronomer.

Her work spanned the years from 1950 to 2014.

She resolved to solve some of the mysteries of the Universe.

But before she could do that,she had to try to get a job and get her voice heard.

As a woman, her biggest battle was against the prejudice of a male-dominated society.

Vera Rubin in 1992. Credit: Mark Godfrey

Through sheer determination and talent, Vera did become a research astronomer.

Her biggest discovery involved the rotation of galaxies.

She found that galaxies spin round at a rate so relatively fast that they should simply fly apart.

Spiral galaxy. Credit: NASA

That they did not was due to some unseen material holding a galaxy together.

That material is now called ‘Dark Matter‘.

Even now, decades on from Vera’s discovery, we do not know what Dark Matter is.

But the observatory named for her might find the answer.

The Vera Rubin Observatory

The American-run observatory named for Vera Rubin is in northern Chile.

It is 8,800m feet up on Cerro Pachon, close to the Gemini South Telescope.

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Vera Rubin Observatory and southern Milky Way.    Credit: NSF/AURA/B. Quint

The observatory is basically a Sky Survey instrument.

It has four main missions. They are:

  1.  A 10-year survey of the southern sky, concentrating on exploring Dark Matter and Dark Energy. This will take up 90% of observing time.
  2. Detecting deep space events such as supernovae.
  3. Detailed mapping of the Milky Way.
  4. Mapping small objects within the Solar System like asteroids, comets and Dwarf Planets.

The Telescope

Credit: RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/NSF/DOE/AURA

The main instrument is the Simonyi Survey Telescope.

It has an 8.4 metre primary mirror, making it one of the largest telescopes on Earth.

It has two large secondary mirrors, of 3.4 and 5-metres.

This unique three mirror design gives the telescope an exceptionally wide field of view, essential for a sky survey.

LSST: RubinObs/NSF/DOE/NOIRLab/SLAC/AU

The Camera

Images from the telescope are recorded by the Large Synoptic Survey camera.

As big as a car, the LSST camera is the largest digital camera ever made.

It weighs 3,000 kg.

LSST Camera:Credit: J. Ramseyer Orrell/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory 

 

The sensor has an enormous 3,200 megapixels.

It will take around 800 images every night, each with 30 seconds exposure.

By the end of the 10-year survey, each portion of the sky will have been observed over 800 times.

This allows significant changes to be measured to meet the four mission aims.

 

In it’s ten-year survey, Vera Rubin will have produced a catalogue of over two million images!

First Images

One of the first images released from Vera Rubin is the ‘Cosmic Treasure Chest’.

This photo is made from 1,100 exposures.

A sprawling, textured field of galaxies is scattered across the deep black of space. The scene stretches wide, over 60 times the area of the full Moon. It is filled with the delicate smudges and glowing cores of galaxies of many shapes, sizes and colors, as well as the bright multi-colored points of stars. At center left lies a large elliptical galaxy that is dense and smooth, like a polished stone glowing with golden light. At center top, another smooth elliptical galaxy is oriented horizontally, with a wispy tail extending right. At right, a group of interacting galaxies is connected by delicate streams of stars like spider silk, suggesting past interactions. All throughout the image, millions of galaxies gather in clusters or are spread throughout, like glittering gems strewn on a table. Some are sharp-edged and spiral, like coiled ribbons; others round and diffuse, like polished pebbles. Still others are just smudges of various colors against the black of space. The background is peppered with pinpoint stars in reds, yellows, and blues, crisp against the velvet black. Zooming in reveals ever more fainter and smaller smudges of various colors between the larger and brighter objects. These are all distant or small galaxies, initially hidden in the black of space, but now revealed. In all, there are about 10 million galaxies in this image.

Cosmic Treasure Chest: Credit: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory

The image shows around 10 million galaxies.

In the next ten years, the obsevatory will image some 20 billion galaxies!

A cosmic tapestry of glowing tan and pink gas clouds with dark dust lanes. In the upper right, the Trifid Nebula resembles a small flower in space. Its soft, pinkish gas petals are surrounded by blue gas, and streaked with dark, finger-like veins of dust that divide it into three parts. It radiates a gentle, misty glow, diffuse and soft like the warmth of breath on a cold hand. To the lower left, the much larger Lagoon Nebula stretches wide like a churning sea of magenta gas, with bright blue, knotted clumps sprinkled throughout where new stars are born. Both nebulae are embedded in a soft tan backdrop of gas that is brighter on the left than on the right, etched with dark tendrils of dust and sprinkled with the pinpricks of millions of stars.

Trifid and Lagoon Nebulae.  Credit: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory

The photo of the Trifid and Lagoon nebulae is a combination of 678 images.

Combining images brings out faint or otherwise invisible detail.

Star Cluster M21. Credit: RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/NSF/DOE/AURA

The third image shows a star cluster, M21.

It shows the bright blue cluster stars with a background of thousands of dimmer stars and clouds of dark dust.

 

Vera Rubin and the Universe

In ten years time, The Vera Rubin Observatory may have changed our ideas of the Universe.

It will certainly have refined them.

Its bank of images will bring the dark universe into the light.

By looking at changes in the cosmic maps, we will learn more about Dark Energy.

This mysterious force is driving the expansion of the universe ever faster.

Cosmic Drama.   Credit: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory

The maps will also show more clearly the distribution of Dark Matter.

This unseen stuff shapes the large scale universe.

We may even discover what Dark Matter really is.

That would no doubt have pleased Vera Rubin!

 

Vera’s washroom

I’ll finish with a story that exemplifies the character of Vera Rubin.

She wanted to work at Mount Palomar, then the number one observatory in the world.

The astronomers there were all men. Most did not want to work with a woman.

Young Vera, aspiring astronomer in 1948

 

One male excuse was that there were no toilet facilities for women at the observatory.

Vera quickly overcame this ruse.

She drew a skirted female silhouette and stuck it on the door marked ‘Men’.

Soon her paper sign was gone – and so was the sign saying ‘Men’!

Vera Rubin became the first woman to use the Palomar telescope.

 

Vera honoured

Vera Rubin receiving the National Medal of Science

In her long career, Vera collected many awards.

In 1993, she received the American Medal of Science from President Bill Clinton.

Her honours paid tribute not only to her work in astronomy but also for her inspiration to women in science.

 

Vera Rubin died on Christmas Day in 2016, aged 88.

As well as being remembered in the new observatory, she is immortalised in the Solar System.

On Mars there is the Vera Rubin Ridge and asteroid 5726 is named Rubin.

In 2011 she wrote:

‘I became an astronomer because I could not imagine living on Earth and not trying to understand how the Universe works’.

I know, dear reader, that you will echo that sentiment.

 

Dennis Ashton, blog author

The author: Dennis Ashton, MBE, is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and a Wonderdome presenter.

In 2024, Dennis received the Special Contribution award from the British Association of Planetaria.

In 2025 he was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire for over 50 years work in Astronomy Education.

 

Wonderdome now has 15 presenters, making us the largest – and best – mobile planetarium organisation in the UK.

 

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