Eye to the sky…on-sky engineering tests have begun at NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory using the world’s largest digital camera!

After installing and testing the LSST Camera, we turned the telescope to the sky—a moment 20 years in the making! Thanks to the years of diligent work from our incredible team, combined with successful testing with the engineering camera late last year, the system is already working well.

Using the largest digital camera in the world, Rubin Observatory will soon be ready to capture more data than any other observatory in history

Over a decade ago, dark-matter experts Daniel Akerib and Thomas Shutt joined the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, continuing their mission to uncover the elusive substance. Writer Ali Sundermier recently caught up with them to discuss the current state of the dark-matter search.

“Marlowe,” named after the fictional detective created by Raymond Chandler, has the potential to transform research across fields, from political science to astrophysics.

The telescope will catalogue billions of new objects and produce a new map of the entire night sky every three days with the largest digital camera ever made.