All (Star) Trails Lead to Rubin

Countless star trails appear as colorful brushstrokes spread across the night sky above NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, jointly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science. This mesmerizing image was created using long-exposure photography, a technique in which a photographer allows light to enter their camera lens for a period of several minutes to several hours. The camera captures the subject’s movements, and the resulting image shows the flow of time in a single shot.

During its decade-long Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) Rubin will use a technique known as difference imaging: equipped with the largest camera ever built, Rubin will image the southern sky every few nights. Scientists will stack the best images in each filter each year into ultra-long exposures and create template images of the southern sky. When this template is compared to individual images, scientists will be able to identify ‘movements’ in the night sky, such as new supernovae or the 'pulsations' of variable stars. After 10 years and thousands of exposures, Rubin will produce an unprecedented ultra-wide, ultra-high-definition, time-lapse record of our Universe — the ultimate movie of the night sky.

This image was captured by Hernán Stockebrand, a NOIRLab Audiovisual Ambassador.