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Rubin Observatory

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Rubin Observatory is a “survey telescope”—but what does that mean?

Telescopes come in many forms. Some are built to study small areas of sky, in fine detail and high resolution.

Survey telescopes, however, map the cosmos by imaging the entire night sky🧵

white observatory building atop a rocky summit under the full moon and against a blue and purple twilight sky
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Rubin Observatory

With these general pictures, scientists can study many different things using the same data.

One scientist could use the images to study stationary galaxies. Another could use the same images to look for objects that change or move in the sky, like supernovae or asteroids.

collage with left photo showing a bright blue comet nucleus and purple tail, upper right photo showing a group of purple-white blobby galaxies, and lower right photo showing one large yellow-white spiral galaxy
Rubin Observatory

Rubin is a special survey telescope! It’s designed to:
✨Quickly take huge pictures of the entire sky from Chile
✨…in high-res
✨…every few nights for 10 years
✨...while also being able to detect very faint objects

No other telescope can do all of those things at once!

Creative illustration showing the Rubin Observatory silhouette against a starry night. Semi-transparent overlays represent image areas Rubin has already taken and a yellow outline shows where Rubin is currently pointing.
Rubin Observatory

Over the course of its 10-year survey, Rubin will take more than five million pictures of the entire visible night sky in more detail than has been possible before, enabling new discoveries about the Universe. #CatchTheUniverse

Learn more at rubinobservatory.org/slideshow

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