The Vera C. Rubin Observatory releases the first images of what will be the most complete ‘movie’ of the night sky ever made

• The mapping is known as the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) and is expected to probe the nature of dark matter and characterize the evolution of dark energy.
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  The IFT is part of the scientific collaboration in a consortium of 30 countries.
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  The IFT, which is also part of the Dark Energy Science Collaboration (DESC), has studied how atmospheric conditions affect the quality of the LSST mapping data, from which results are obtained on the age, composition and structure of the universe.

June 23, 2025.- NSF-DOE's Vera C. Rubin Observatory. Rubin Observatory of NSF-DOE has just released its first images of the universe, which in astronomy is called the ‘first light’ of an instrument. This event marks the beginning of a revolutionary era in cosmic exploration and can be followed live on the Vera C. Rubin Observatory's YouTube channel. Rubin Observatory.

Jointly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the observatory is named in honor of astronomer Vera Rubin, a pioneer whose work provided the first solid evidence for the existence of dark matter. The Rubin Observatory sets a new standard for astronomical mapping with an innovative mirror design, unmatched camera sensitivity, fast slewing capability, and powerful computing infrastructure.

Located in Chile, the Rubin Observatory will produce the most comprehensive movie of the night sky to date: the mapping is known as the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) and will scan the southern sky over ten years. It will allow us to delve into questions about the characteristics of dark energy and dark matter, the formation of the Milky Way, the properties of small solar system bodies, and the trajectories of potentially dangerous asteroids.

Equipped with the largest digital camera ever built in the field of astronomy, the observatory will map the sky repeatedly to create a high-definition ultra-panoramic time-lapse of the universe. Its main goals 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 map the Milky Way to discover the structure and history of our galaxy.

Thousands of people from more than 30 countries have worked at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. From Spain, a consortium composed of the Instituto de Ciencias del Espacio (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) and 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 dark energy

Among the many researchers contributing to this mission are researchers from ICE-CSIC and IEEC, who have played a key role in the scientific and technical development of the ambitious Rubin Observatory project. In particular, these researchers will lead 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 mapping.

"This is the first time that a telescope of such a large aperture, more than eight meters in diameter, is used, dedicated entirely to performing a ten-year scan of the sky. In addition to producing a dynamic movie of the entire southern sky over that decade, it will make it possible to combine all the images to detect the faintest objects ever observed from Earth. For the study of the transient universe, this means having the most accurate and productive discovery machine for supernovae and other stellar explosions, with more than one hundred thousand alerts of new objects every night," says Lluís Galbany, researcher at ICE-CSIC and IEEC.

"The LSST mapping to be carried out at the Vera Rubin Observatory will allow us to discover the nature of dark matter and characterize the evolution of dark energy. It is an extraordinary opportunity to increase our knowledge of the fundamental physics associated with the most pressing problems in cosmology," says 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 are seeing the first frames of a decade-long movie of the universe that will change the way we study the cosmos," says Jorge Carretero, project scientist for cosmology and data support at the PIC.

The PIC team, operated through a collaboration 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 before and after in astronomy. We will no longer depend on luck to observe supernovae, detect new asteroids or variability in starlight. Its way of looking at the sky will allow us to track any change with precision and constancy without relying on chance," says Laura Toribio San Cipriano, a researcher in CIEMAT's cosmology group.

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

The IAC has participated in the definition of the agreements to contribute observing time from the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) to scientific programs related to LSST. Also, different IAC research groups are actively participating in the preparation of 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, very energetic processes in galaxies, gravitational waves, galaxy clusters and cosmology, substellar science, small bodies in the solar system, transient objects and galaxy evolution.

In addition, several members of the Spanish institutions in the consortium also hold positions of responsibility in the Dark Energy Science Collaboration (DESC), an international scientific collaboration that will perform high-precision measurements of fundamental cosmological parameters using LSST mapping data. In addition, they lead the Computation and Simulations area of the project.

From the IFT-UAM/CSIC, which collaborates in DESC, they have studied how atmospheric conditions affect the quality of the data. To this end, methods were developed to mitigate data contamination by applying what was learned in previous mappings, as well as research on how to incorporate new techniques, some of them based on artificial intelligence. “The objective is to guarantee the quality of the data from which results on the age, composition and structure of the universe are obtained,” says Martín Rodríguez, postdoctoral researcher at IFT-UAM/CSIC.