The game-changing Vera C. Rubin Observatory will collect more astronomical data in its first year than all other telescopes combined.

Two decades ago, Stanford and SLAC took a gamble on an unproven telescope design that had no funding, no home, and no official backing. Now, with first images in hand and full operations on the horizon, that bet is on the verge of paying off.

High up on the top of Cerro Pachón in northern Chile, NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science (DOE), is nearing completion. At the heart of the facility, a pivotal moment in the project’s scientific adventure is unfolding.

Get ready to join us on June 23, 2025 as we unveil the first spectacular imagery from NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, and celebrate the start of a new era in astronomy and astrophysics with the world's newest and most powerful survey telescope.

Over the next ten years, Rubin Observatory will create the ultimate movie of the night sky using the largest camera ever built — repeatedly scanning the sky to create an ultra-wide, ultra-high-definition time-lapse record of our Universe.

Seven Stanford researchers join the scholarly society, which works to promote science for public good.

A look inside the data processing infrastructure built by the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory to handle the Universe’s greatest data challenge.

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