ann25002 — Announcement

Testing, Testing! NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory Completes Comprehensive System Tests With Flying Colors

14 January 2025

After ten years of construction, NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory is less than one year away from the start of its transformational movie of our changing night sky. In preparation for this monumental production, the observatory has just successfully completed a series of full-system tests using an engineering test camera. This accomplishment sets the stage for the last step of Rubin construction: installation of the 3200-megapixel LSST Camera (LSSTCam) — the largest digital camera in the world.

Rubin Observatory is jointly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. Rubin is a joint Program of NSF NOIRLab and DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, who will cooperatively operate Rubin.

The engineering test camera, or commissioning camera (ComCam), has a mosaic of nine CCD sensors with a total of 144 megapixels. It covers an area about twice that of a full Moon. Over the seven-week ComCam engineering test campaign, from 24 October to 11 December 2024, approximately 16,000 exposures were acquired to test Rubin Observatory’s hardware and software systems and data pipeline.

ComCam is a much smaller version of the huge LSSTCam. The LSSTCam will next be installed on the telescope in place of ComCam, where it will help carry out Rubin’s 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time. With 189 CCD sensors, LSSTCam’s field of view will be 21 times that of ComCam, with each single image capturing an area on the sky about 45 times the size of the full Moon. Coupled with Rubin’s fast-moving, 8.4-meter telescope, the LSSTCam will capture very faint objects and objects that change in position or brightness at a rate the science community has never seen before.

The tests conducted by Rubin’s international commissioning team, which is composed of hundreds of engineers, scientists, and observing specialists, included:

• Verifying the Active Optics System that maintains the precise positions and shapes of the telescope’s three large mirrors as the telescope points in different directions
• Checking that the telescope’s complex systems were all working together
• Demonstrating the early image quality capabilities of the system in all six filters
• Shipping the large amount of data quickly from Chile to the Rubin Data Facility at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
• Running the complex data processing pipelines

Rubin Observatory (encompassing the Simonyi Survey Telescope, the camera, data systems, networks, and people) performed exceptionally well during the engineering test phase. It delivered high-quality images within the first hours, even with most of the detailed optical adjustments and environmental controls not yet fully activated. Thanks to the dedicated efforts and talents of thousands of people over many years, the telescope had been assembled with all its complex parts positioned correctly to better than about one millimeter. Equally satisfyingly, the high speed network connecting Chile and the data center at SLAC, the data systems, and algorithms for analyzing the data worked well too.

“The success of the engineering test phase has given a surge of excitement and anticipation to the team,” says Sandrine Thomas, Deputy Director for Rubin Construction. “Reaching this milestone has offered a small taste of what is to come once Rubin Observatory begins its 10-year survey.”

The next few months will focus on installing the LSSTCam — one of the last major steps in the journey toward ‘First Look’ when images from the complete Rubin Observatory will be shared with the world for the first time. Then, after the final phase of full system testing and verification, Rubin Observatory will begin the most comprehensive data-gathering mission in the history of astrophysics.

By repeatedly scanning the entire southern night sky for a whole decade, Rubin will create an ultra-wide, ultra-high-definition time-lapse record of our changing cosmos. This will be the greatest movie of the Universe ever created, bringing the night sky to life and yielding a treasure trove of discoveries: asteroids and comets, pulsating stars, supernova explosions, and so much more. With Rubin data, we will understand our Universe better, chronicle its evolution in unprecedented detail, delve into the mysteries of dark energy and dark matter, and reveal answers to questions we have yet to imagine.

More information

NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, is a groundbreaking new astronomy and astrophysics observatory under construction on Cerro Pachón in Chile, with first light expected in 2025. It is named after astronomer Vera Rubin, who provided the first convincing evidence for the existence of dark matter. Using the largest camera ever built, Rubin will repeatedly scan the sky for 10 years and create an ultra-wide, ultra-high-definition, time-lapse record of our Universe.

NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory is a joint initiative of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science (DOE/SC). Its primary mission is to carry out the Legacy Survey of Space and Time, providing an unprecedented data set for scientific research supported by both agencies. Rubin is operated jointly by NSF NOIRLab and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. NSF NOIRLab is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) and SLAC is operated by Stanford University for the DOE. France provides key support to the construction and operations of Rubin Observatory through contributions from CNRS/IN2P3. Rubin Observatory is privileged to conduct research in Chile and gratefully acknowledges additional contributions from more than 40 international organizations and teams.

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 to promote the progress of science. NSF supports basic research and people to create knowledge that transforms the future.

The DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time.

NSF NOIRLab, the U.S. National Science Foundation center for ground-based optical-infrared astronomy, operates the International Gemini Observatory (a facility of NSF, NRC–Canada, ANID–Chile, MCTIC–Brazil, MINCyT–Argentina, and KASI–Republic of Korea), NSF Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), NSF Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), the Community Science and Data Center (CSDC), and NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory (in cooperation with DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory). It is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with NSF and is headquartered in Tucson, Arizona. 

The scientific community is honored to have the opportunity to conduct astronomical research on I’oligam Du’ag (Kitt Peak) in Arizona, on Maunakea in Hawai‘i, and on Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachón in Chile. We recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence of I’oligam Du’ag (Kitt Peak) to the Tohono O’odham Nation, and Maunakea to the Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians) community.

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory explores how the universe works at the biggest, smallest and fastest scales and invents powerful tools used by researchers around the globe. As world leaders in ultrafast science and bold explorers of the physics of the universe, we forge new ground in understanding our origins and building a healthier and more sustainable future. Our discovery and innovation help develop new materials and chemical processes and open unprecedented views of the cosmos and life’s most delicate machinery. Building on more than 60 years of visionary research, we help shape the future by advancing areas such as quantum technology, scientific computing and the development of next-generation accelerators.

Links

• Announcement on rubinobservatory.org
• Vera C. Rubin Observatory website
• Vera C. Rubin Observatory images
• More Rubin images
• Rubin videos
• Rubin multimedia resources

Contacts

Željko Ivezić
Director of Rubin Construction
Professor of Astronomy, University of Washington/AURA
Cell: +1-206-403-6132
Email: ivezic@uw.edu

Sandrine Thomas
Deputy Director for Rubin Construction
Email: sthomas@lsst.org

Aaron Roodman
Deputy Director for Rubin Construction
Email: roodman@slac.stanford.edu

Victor Krabbendam
Project Manager for Rubin Construction
Email: vkrabbandam@lsst.org

Josie Fenske
Jr. Public Information Officer
NSF NOIRLab
Email: josie.fenske@noirlab.edu

Aaron Groff
Media Relations Lead
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Email: agroff@slac.stanford.edu

Ranpal Gill
Communications Manager for Rubin Construction
Email: rgill@lsst.org