Summary
High in the Chilean Andes is the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, a next-generation facility named after Vera Rubin, a pioneering astronomer whose work provided key evidence for dark matter. Rubin Observatory houses the world’s largest digital camera (3.2-gigapixel) capable of covering ~45 times of the size of the full Moon in a single image. With the ability to scan the visible night sky approximately once every three nights, this international facility is going make the largest “movie” of the changing night sky.
Rubin Observatory has begun its 10-year mission to “download the sky” and make the most comprehensive census of objects in the Universe to-date. In this talk, I will present this new observatory, its capabilities, and how it is going to completely change our view of the Solar System from finding “killer asteroids”, interstellar visitors, and distant small worlds (and maybe even a planet) beyond Neptune.
