The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, which recently began operations in Chile, detected 10 million galaxies in its first week. This observatory photographs the entire visible sky every few nights, creating the most comprehensive "movie of the universe" to date.
After this start that has exceeded all expectations, the observatory located in Chile not only promises to answer the great enigmas of astronomy, but also to discover phenomena that we cannot even imagine today.
The universe has been, for the most part, silent and dark to us. Despite our advances, we only see snapshots, static photographs of a cosmos that is actually vibrant and dynamic. But that is about to change. On the arid peaks of Cerro Pachón, in Chile, a new giant has opened its eye to the sky, and its first blink has been dazzling.
In its first few weeks of operation, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory has already demonstrated overwhelming power: it has cataloged millions of galaxies and discovered thousands of asteroids with unprecedented speed. However, this initial success isn't the headline news; rather, it's the first evidence that the most powerful tool for exploring the dynamic universe is already underway. The real question is: if this is just the beginning, what comes next?
The Universe Movie, Live
The Vera C. Rubin mission is a decade-long project: the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). Its goal isn't to take beautiful postcards of the cosmos, but something much more ambitious. Every three nights, its 3,200-megapixel camera—the largest ever built—will scan the entire sky visible from the southern hemisphere. The result, ten years later, will be an unprecedented movie of half the heavens.
This approach will allow us to move from a static view to a dynamic one, observing changes in the universe almost in real time. It's the equivalent of going from having a single photo of a city to having the recordings from all its security cameras for a decade.
The Four Great Mysteries in Their Focus
The heart of the Vera C. Rubin mission is to address four of the most important areas of modern cosmology. These are the major mysteries it will help solve:
1. Unraveling Dark Energy and Dark Matter This is her most fundamental goal. The matter we see—stars, planets, us—makes up barely 5% of the universe. The rest is a complete enigma, divided between dark matter (27%) and dark energy (68%). By mapping the location and shape of billions of galaxies, Rubin will measure how the gravity of dark matter pulls them together and how dark energy accelerates the expansion of the universe. This work honors the legacy of Vera Rubin herself, the astronomer who provided the foundational evidence for the existence of dark matter.
2. Complete the Inventory of the Solar System (and Protect Ourselves) The telescope will be a veritable asteroid detection factory. During its mission, it is expected to discover tens of thousands of potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs) —those larger than 140 meters in diameter whose orbit comes close to Earth. This will provide us with the most comprehensive hazard map to date. It will also explore the icy reaches of our cosmic neighborhood, uncovering thousands of new objects in the Kuiper Belt, the frozen remains of our solar system's formation. Will Rubin finally find the hypothetical Planet Nine? It is, without a doubt, our best bet.
3. Mapping the Milky Way in Four Dimensions Our own galaxy still holds secrets. Rubin will observe the Milky Way in astonishing detail, charting the position and motion of billions of stars over time. This will allow scientists to see "stellar streams"—the ghostly remnants of smaller galaxies that our own has cannibalized throughout its history—and piece together the violent biography of our galactic home.
4. Explore the "Transient Universe" Each night, Rubin's system will process a flood of data and issue some 10 million automatic alerts about any object that has changed in brightness or position. This constant stream of information will include supernovae (the explosion of dying stars), the twinkling of distant stars caused by passing exoplanets, or the flare caused by black holes devouring matter. Astronomers around the world will be able to use these alerts to point other telescopes and study these fleeting phenomena as they occur.
A New Age of Discovery
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory marks the beginning of a new way of doing astronomy, one driven by Big Data and constant monitoring. Not only will it answer questions we already ask, but its greatest legacy could be precisely the unexpected: the discovery of entirely new cosmic phenomena that we don't even know exist today.
Over the next decade, many of the most important news stories about the cosmos will come from data collected from Cerro Pachón. An unprecedented window has opened, and on the other side await the secrets of a universe that we will finally be able to see in motion.
Sep 14, 2025
