The Rubin Observatory presents today its first images of the Universe via an online event that can be followed live on its YouTube channel. These snapshots, which in astronomy are called the ‘first light’ of an instrument, mark the beginning of a time-lapse that will be completed after mapping the southern sky for a decade. The results of this international collaboration, in which the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC) participates, will allow us to delve deeper into questions about dark matter, catalog the solar system, and uncover the structure and history of our galaxy.

Jointly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy, the observatory’s name honors Vera Rubin, the pioneering astronomer whose work provided the first strong evidence for the existence of dark matter. The Rubin Observatory sets an entirely new standard for astronomical surveys with a groundbreaking mirror design, an unmatched camera sensitivity, rapid slewing capability and a powerful computing infrastructure. 

Located in Chile, Rubin Observatory will produce the most comprehensive movie of the night sky ever made; the survey will be known as the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) and it will scan the astral sky over the course of 10 years.  It will allow us to delve deeper into questions about characteristics of the energy and the dark matter, the creation of the Milky Way, the property of the small bodies in the solar system and trajectories of the highly dangerous asteroids. 

Powered by the largest digital camera ever built for astronomy, the observatory will scan the sky repeatedly to create an ultra-wide, ultra-high-definition time lapse of the Universe. Its main objectives are clear: to understand dark energy and dark matter, catalog the solar system by observing millions of asteroids and comets, explore the transient sky and mapping the Milky Way in order to uncover the structure and history of our galaxy.  

Thousands of people from more than 30 countries have worked in the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. The Spanish participation is articulated through a consortium composed of Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC), the Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC), the Institut de Física d’Altes Energies (IFAE), the Port d’Informació Científica (PIC), the Instituto de Física Teórica (IFT-UAM/CSIC), the Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas (CIEMAT) and the  Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) with a key role in the scientific and technical development of the project.

Studying the dark matter

Among the many researchers contributing to this mission, there are members from ICE-CSIC and IEEC, who have played a key role in the scientific and technical development of the ambitious Rubin Observatory project. Specifically, these researchers will lead the observations with the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), a 10.4-meter diameter telescope located at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on the island of La Palma, for the spectroscopic follow-up of transient objects discovered by the LSST survey.

“This is the first time that a telescope with such a large aperture, measuring more than eight meters in diameter, has been used entirely to scan the sky for ten years. In addition to producing a dynamic movie of the entire southern sky over that decade, it will allow all the images to be combined to detect the faintest objects ever observed from Earth. For the study of the transient universe, this means having the most precise and productive machine for discovering supernovae and other stellar explosions, with more than one hundred thousand alerts of new objects every night,” comments Lluís Galbany, researcher at ICE-CSIC and IEEC.

“The LSST survey, which will be carried out at the Vera Rubin Observatory, will allow us to uncover the nature of dark matter and characterize the evolution of dark energy. This is an extraordinary opportunity to increase our understanding of the fundamental physics associated with the most pressing problems in cosmology”, comments Juan García-Bellido, cosmologist and researcher at IFT-UAM/CSIC.

“Seeing the first images from LSST is incredibly exciting, and this is just the beginning. We're seeing the first frames of a decade-long movie of the Universe that will change the way we study the cosmos”, confirms Jorge Carretero, cosmology project scientist and PIC data support.

The PIC team, operated through a collaborative agreement between CIEMAT and IFAE, is implementing an Independent Data Access Center (IDAC) powered by CosmoHub, which offers the scientific community a powerful and easy-to-use portal to explore and analyze the vast amount of data produced by the telescope.

“The Rubin Observatory marks a turning point in astronomy. We will no longer depend on luck to observe supernovae, detect new asteroids, or variability in starlight. Its way of observing the sky will allow us to track any change with precision and consistency without relying on chance,” points out Laura Toribio San Cipriano, researcher at the CIEMAT cosmology group.

The CIEMAT has participated in the scientific commissioning of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, collaborating in the analysis of the system's performance, including the stability and dynamic response of the primary-tertiary and secondary mirrors, the structural behavior of the telescope during observation movements, and the validation of data quality before the start of scientific operations.

The IAC has participated in defining the agreements to provide observing time from the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) to scientific programmes related to LSST. Likewise, various IAC research groups are actively participating in preparing for the scientific exploitation of LSST in several lines of research, including deep imaging of galaxies, dwarf galaxies, intracluster light, the Milky Way and the Local Group, stellar magnetic activity, highly energetic processes in galaxies, gravitational waves, galaxy clusters and cosmology, substellar science, small bodies in the Solar System, transient objects, and galaxy evolution.

Several members of the Spanish consortium institutions also hold leadership positions in the Dark Energy Science Collaboration (DESC), an international scientific collaboration that will perform high-precision measurements of fundamental cosmological parameters using data from the LSST mapping project. They also lead the project's Computation and Simulations area.

The IFT-UAM/CSIC, which collaborates with DESC, has studied how atmospheric conditions affect data quality. To do so, they developed methods to mitigate data contamination by applying lessons learned from previous mapping projects, as well as research on how to incorporate new techniques, some of them based on artificial intelligence. "The goal is to guarantee the quality of the data from which results are obtained on the age, composition, and structure of the universe," says Martín Rodríguez, postdoctoral researcher at the IFT-UAM/CSIC.