Images from the world's largest camera

Story in Nature news: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01973-5

First images from world’s largest digital camera leave astronomers in awe

The Rubin Observatory in Chile will map the entire southern sky every three to four nights.

The Trifid Nebula (top right) and the Lagoon Nebula, in an image made from 678 separate exposures taken at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile. Credit: NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory

 

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile has unveiled its first images, leaving astronomers in awe of the unprecedented capabilities of the observatory’s 3,200-megapixel digital camera — the largest in the world. The images were created from shots taken during a trial that started in April, when construction of the observatory’s Simonyi Survey Telescope was completed.

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One image (pictured) shows the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula, in a region of the Milky Way that is dense with ionized hydrogen and with young and still-forming stars. The picture was created from 678 separate exposures taken by the Simonyi Survey Telescope in just over 7 hours. Each exposure was monochromatic and taken with one of four filters; they were combined to give the rich colours of the final product.