APOD: 2025 June 4 Б A Milky Road to the Rubin Observatory
Explanation:
Is the sky the same every night?
No -- the night sky changes every night in many ways.
To better explore how the night sky changes, the
USA's
NSF and
DOE commissioned the
Vera C. Rubin Observatory
in
Cerro PachцЁn,
Chile.
In final testing before routine operations,
Rubin will begin to explore these
nightly changes --
slight differences that can tell us much about our
amazing universe
and its surprising
zoo of objects.
With a mirror over 8 meters across, Rubin will
continually reimage the entire
visible sky every few nights to discover new
supernovas, potentially
dangerous asteroids, faint comets, and
variable stars -- as well as
mapping out the visible universe's
large-scale structure.
Pictured, the distant
central band of our
Milky Way Galaxy appears to flow out from the
newly operational observatory.
Taken last month, the
featured picture is a composite of 21 images across the night sky, capturing
airglow on the horizon and the
Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy
on the lower left.
APOD Turns 30!:
Free Public Lecture in Anchorage on June 11
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
