Making the Invisible Visible: The First Images from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory

First light was revealed from the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile, one of the most important scientific initiatives of our time, in which more than 30 countries, including Mexico, participate.

In this initiative, the world connected synchronously to see the first images of the Observatory, captured by its camera, the largest in the world, marking the beginning of the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST).

With 10 hours of test operations, the Observatory was able to capture millions of galaxies, millions of stars located in the Milky Way, and thousands of unknown asteroids, on an unprecedented scale and with unprecedented definition, from its operations site located on Cerro Pachón, in the Coquimbo Region, Chile.

This project allows us to study the changes that billions of objects in the universe experience over time, from small asteroids close to planet Earth to distant galaxies.

From Mexico, the Secretariat of Science, Humanities, Technology and Innovation (Secihti) organized a public session together with the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the University of Guanajuato (UG). At the event, the director of the Division of Sciences and Engineering at UG, Modesto Antonio Sosa Aquino, highlighted that, in addition to the technical importance of the project, the Observatory is also a tool for scientific dissemination.

"Knowledge should not be limited to scientists alone; we must instill science in future generations."

For his part, Octavio Valenzuela Tijerino, a researcher at the UNAM Institute of Astronomy and spokesperson for the LSST-MX consortium, stated that "achieving all of this requires contributions from the technological side, the operation of the observatory and telescope, the data centers, and the organization, which makes it a truly international collaboration."

How does the telescope work?

The Observatory is a frontier project, involving the collaboration of many countries. It houses the Simonyi telescope, which consists of a triple-mirror system and the world's largest digital camera, capable of detecting objects up to 10 billion times fainter than those seen with the naked eye.

Through the Observatory, the scientific and astronomical community seeks to study the nature of dark matter and dark energy, create a detailed map of the Milky Way, compile a detailed catalog of the smallest objects in the Solar System, and study the changing universe.

Thanks to its compact design, the sensitivity of its camera, and the speed and frequency with which it records different areas of the sky, Simonyi is capable of scanning the entire Southern Hemisphere's night sky in three nights. This, combined with the computing infrastructure necessary to meet the enormous demands placed on its telescope, allows the Vera C. Rubin to conduct the census of larger astronomical objects.

It is estimated that it will capture 2 million images over the course of ten years of research; every three nights, it will observe 20 billion galaxies, 17 billion stars, 10 million supernovae, and 6 million Solar System objects.

To analyze all the data, Rubin relies on eight scientific collaborations involving approximately 2,800 researchers from around the world.

How does Mexico participate?

Mexico participates through the LSST-MX scientific consortium, made up of nearly 60 researchers and students from various universities and public institutions in the country, including the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the University of Guanajuato (UG), organizations that signed a collaboration agreement that shapes the consortium.

With this agreement, Mexican scientists contribute software development and the use of innovative analytical techniques, including artificial intelligence, focused on topics such as strong gravitational lensing, cosmology, galaxies, stars, the Milky Way, and Local Volume; as well as key technological equipment that facilitates scientific collaborations.

Additionally, it will contribute to the development of a Data Access Center (LiteIDAC), which will be located in the Models and Data Laboratory (Lamod) of the UNAM and will support some of the LSST scientific collaborations and the national scientific community.

This agreement also provides institutional and legal support to the LSST-MX consortium, both for its operations and for the signing of the international collaborative research and development agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the institution that represents the Vera C. Rubin Observatory.

The people who are part of LSST-MX and who have access to early data, work in different public institutions, so far: in addition to institutes and centers of UNAM and UG, the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP), the Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute (Cinvestav), the Mesoamerican Center for Theoretical Physics (MCTP), National Institute of Nuclear Research (ININ), the Autonomous University of San Luis Potosí (UASLP), the Michoacana University of San Nicolás de Hidalgo (UMSNH) and the Autonomous University of Zacatecas (UAZ).

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory's first light broadcast can be relived, in which the following participated and explained the collaboration and the images: Bolivia Cuevas Otahola, a postdoctoral researcher at BUAP; Alma Xóchitl González Morales, a researcher at UG and spokesperson for the LSST-MX consortium; Vladimir Ávila Reese, Academic Secretary of the UNAM Institute of Astronomy; and Josué de Santiago Sanabria, a researcher from Mexico attached to Cinvestav. The session was moderated by Carlo Altamirano Allende, Director of Basic and Frontier Scientific Research at Secihti.