World's Largest Digital Camera Begins Decade Survey of Southern Sky

The world's largest digital camera has begun a decade-long mission to map the southern night sky from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile. Perched atop Cerro Pachón, the camera measures about the size of a small car and weighs around 3,000 kilograms.

Over the next 10 years the instrument will capture 700 to 800 images every night. Euronews reported that the resulting survey is intended to create an unprecedented record of the universe. Phil Marshall, Deputy Director of Operations at the NSF-DOE Vera C.

Rubin Observatory, said the project will allow scientists to "cover the whole of the southern night sky" and build a detailed census of the solar system. He added that the observations could help researchers discover millions of asteroids, search for the hypothetical Planet Nine, map the Milky Way, and study supernovae, black holes, dark matter and dark energy.

The observatory is named after astronomer Vera Rubin, whose pioneering research provided the first strong evidence for the existence of dark matter.

Rubin released its first images last year, including views of the Lagoon Nebula thousands of light-years from Earth, before beginning full scientific operations. Marshall described the project as a major scientific collaboration that demonstrates what large international teams can achieve on ambitious research.