Latest news with #CerroPachon
Forbes
11-07-2025
- Science
- Forbes
3I/Atlas Isn't The First Interstellar Object To Visit Our Solar System
An interstellar object – a comet from a distant star system – is passing through the space between Jupiter and Mars, and according to a recent study, Comet 3I/Atlas may be 3 billion years older than our Solar System. CERRO PACHON, CHILE - JUNE 08: (——EDITORIAL USE ONLY - MANDATORY CREDIT - 'OBSERVATORIO VERA C. ... More RUBIN / HANDOUT' - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS——) The night sky dazzles above Rubin Observatory in this image in Cerro Pachon, Chile on June 08, 2025. Beginning in late 2025, Rubin Observatory's decade-long Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) will generate an ultra-wide, ultra-high-definition time-lapse record of the Universe at Observatorio Vera C. Rubin, in Cerro Pachon, Chile. (Photo by OBSERVATORIO VERA C. RUBIN/ HANDOUT/Anadolu via Getty Images) Comet 3I/Atlas appears to hail from somewhere toward the center of the Milky Way (which makes sense, because most of the galaxy is 'toward the middle' from Earth). And according to astronomer Matthew Hopkins and his colleagues, the comet entered our Solar System at a steep angle, which suggests that it came from a region of the galaxy called the 'thick disk.' Most of the stars, gas, and dust that make up our galaxy orbit around the center in the same plane, a spiral-armed disk about 400 light years deep. But about 10% of the Milky Way's stars (by mass) orbit in the 1000 light years 'above' and 'below' the thin disk, like the stellar bread on a galactic sandwich. The thick disk is home to older stars with simpler chemical makeup than our young Sun, and there's very little interstellar gas or dust drifting between them. In other words, interstellar comet 3I/Atlas didn't just come from an alien star system – it came from a cosmic neighborhood very different, and much older than, our own. "We think there's a two-thirds chance this comet is older than the Solar System, and that it's been drifting through interstellar space ever since," said astronomer Chris Lintott, a coauthor of the study, in a recent press release. But though Comet 3I/Atlas may be the oldest interstellar object we've ever seen, it's not the first – it may even be one of thousands. Interstellar Object 'Oumuamua: A Messenger From Afar, Arriving First This artist's illustration shows what 'Oumuamua might look like if we had been able to get a closer ... More look. Interstellar object 1I/'Oumuamua was 21 million miles from Earth and already on its way out of the system when astronomers first spotted it in October 2017. That meant we got just a fleeting glimpse of the long, thin, red-hued chunk of rock as it tumbled into the cosmic distance – just enough to stir up wild speculation about alien space probes, in fact. After 'Oumuamua swung past the Sun, it accelerated slightly. Astronomers watching the asteroid's progress calculated that the pull of the Sun's gravity couldn't have accounted for that burst of speed. 'Oumuamua moved more like a comet than an asteroid; as comets get closer to the Sun, their icy nucleus starts to evaporate, releasing plumes of gas into space – which in turn give the comet a push that can speed it up or change its course. But 'Oumuamua moved like a comet, it didn't look like one. All that erupting gas and dust usually forms a cloud, or coma, around the comet's nucleus, along with a tail pointing away from the Sun. Harvard University astrophysicist Avi Loeb proposed that 'Oumuamua was actually a thin solar sail (a sail designed to catch solar radiation instead of wind), which had caught the solar wind and used it to accelerate. Other astronomers pointed out that the idea made no sense, because 'Oumuamua was tumbling as it passed through the Solar System, and a tumbling solar sail wouldn't have been very effective at all. It turned out that, according to a 2023 study, 'Oumuamua was really a comet all along – just a weird one. As it flew through interstellar space, cosmic rays had broken apart about a third of the water molecules trapped inside 'Oumuamua, creating a lot of loose hydrogen molecules. When 'Oumuamua approached the Sun and started venting gas, the hydrogen was too light to drag any dust along with it as it erupted, so the comet's coma and tail were invisible but could explain the bizarre acceleration. Interstellar Object Borisov: A Rogue Comet From A Dim Red Star The Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of Borisov when it was about 260 million miles away. Another piece of a distant star system, a rogue comet probably born around a red dwarf star, swept through our Solar System in late 2019, streaming a tail of gas and dust 100,000 miles long. (The comet itself, 2I/Borisov, was only about a mile wide when astronomers first spotted it.) 'We reasoned that Borisov is likely a representative of the star system it comes from,' Auburn University astronomer Dennis Bodewits said in a 2020 press release from NASA. In other words, 2I/Borisov's chemical makeup could offer some clues about the alien star it once orbited. The comet contained a surprising amount of carbon monoxide ice (some comets in our Solar System contain carbon monoxide ice, too, but not nearly as much of it), according to data from the Hubble Space Telescope and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), Because carbon monoxide needs much colder temperatures to freeze than water does, 2I/Borisov must have formed somewhere very cold: less than −337.04° Fahrenheit. That could point to the system of planets orbiting a type of small, dim star called a red dwarf. "Red dwarfs are much smaller and dimmer than the Sun, so the planet-forming material around them would be colder than the building blocks of our solar system," explained NASA in its press release at the time. And the odds are in favor of the red dwarf idea, because these dim, cool-burning stars make up about 75% of the stars in our galaxy. On the other hand, the carbon monoxide ice could also point to someplace like the outskirts of a system like ours; at 3.7 billion miles away from the Sun, dwarf planet Pluto's surface temperature ranges from -375° to -400° Fahrenheit, and there is carbon monoxide ice on its surface. So it's possible that 2I/Borisov is actually a chunk of a dwarf exoplanet – another star's version of Pluto – which got knocked into space by a meteor impact. Or maybe 2I/Borisov was always just a mile-wide clump of ice and dust that coalesced in the chilly outer reaches of its star system. Either way, something must have boosted the comet to escape velocity, letting it slip the bonds of its star's gravity and travel through interstellar space. In our own Solar System, migrating gas giants probably boosted some of the comets of the Oort Cloud into their long, lopsided orbits, and they may also have kicked an entire planet out into interstellar space. The same process could have flung 2I/Borisov out of its own star system. Interstellar Object Atlas: The Oldest Comet Ever Seen This diagram shows Atlas's likely route through our Solar System. And now, for the third time in less than a decade, another comet from another distant star system is passing through. Like 2I/Borisov, 3I/Atlas is probably a comet. Telescopes here on Earth can't see 3I/Atlas in much detail yet, but what they can see suggests that it's surrounded by a haze of gas, some of which is streaming outward to form a short tail, which will get larger as the comet gets closer to the Sun. That means 3I/Atlas is probably made of more ice than rock. And if Hopkins and his colleagues are right about its origins, a lot of that ice should be water, rather than other ices like carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, or methane. 'The gases that may be seen in the future as 3I is heated by the Sun will test our model,' said co-author University of Canterbury in New Zealand astronomer Michele Bannister, a co-author of the recent study, in a press release. Comet 3I/Atlas looks larger than either 1I/'Oumuamua or 2I/Borisov; Atlas is somewhere between 6.2 and 12.4 miles wide, while Borisov was about a mile wide. Cigar-shaped 'Oumuamua, the smallest of the three, was less than 3,000 feet long and less than 500 feet wide. And Atlas is also 'moving considerably faster than the other two extrasolar objects that we previously discovered,' according to University of Lancashire astronomer Mark Norris in comments to Agence France Presse. 'Oumuamua was zooming along at around 86,000 miles per hour when it passed the Sun, and Borizov whizzed past at 98,000 miles per hour. Meanwhile, astronomers have already clocked Atlas at around 137,000 miles per hour, and it will be moving even faster by the time it passes by the Sun in October 2025. Interstellar Objects Pass Through More Often Than We Thought Authorities and scientists attend a simultaneous conference with the United States, after the first ... More images of deep space captured by the Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile were revealed, in Santiago on June 23, 2025. The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile published their first images on June 23, 2025, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant telescope, funded by the US National Science Foundation and the US Department of Energy is perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. (Photo by Rodrigo ARANGUA / AFP) (Photo by RODRIGO ARANGUA/AFP via Getty Images) So why are astronomers suddenly so many interstellar objects wandering through our Solar System? It's not because we're the hot new travel destination for wandering space rocks, but because new telescopes – like Vera Rubin – make it possible to see smaller, dimmer, and more distant objects. The presence of interstellar objects in our Solar System isn't anything new, but our ability to spot them definitely is. 'Astronomers estimate that an interstellar object similar to 'Oumuamua passes through the inner solar system about once per year, but they are faint and hard to spot and have been missed until now. It is only recently that survey telescopes, such as Pan-STARRS1 [which spotted 'Oumuamua], are powerful enough to have a chance to discover them,' explains NASA on its webpage for 'Oumuamua. And now that the Vera Rubin Observatory is up and running, astronomers like Norris are optimistic about spotting more interstellar objects passing through the Solar System on their way to (and from) parts unknown: maybe as many as several a year. Meanwhile, a 2022 study suggested that we may actually have a few million samples of other star systems orbiting our own Sun. If University of Edinburg astronomer and statistician Jorge Peñarrubia is right, our Sun may have trapped a few million passing interstellar objects in the outer reaches of our Solar system. Some of them are stuck permanently, while others may make a couple of laps around the Sun and slingshot off into interstellar space again. It's a fascinating reminder that our Solar System is part of a wider galaxy – and not as isolated from it as we tend to think. As John Noonan of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona, Tucson, said in the same 2020 NASA press release,'With an interstellar comet passing through our own solar system, it's like we get a sample of a planet orbiting another star showing up in our own backyard.'
Free Malaysia Today
25-06-2025
- Science
- Free Malaysia Today
Vera Rubin observatory reveals stunning first images
The first images of deep space captured by the Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile are revealed in Santiago. (AFP pic) WASHINGTON : Breathtaking stellar nurseries, a sprawling stretch of cosmos teeming with millions of galaxies, and thousands of newly discovered asteroids were revealed Monday in the first deep space images captured by the Vera C Rubin Observatory in Chile. More than two decades in the making, the US$800 million US-funded telescope sits atop Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One debut image is a composite of 678 exposures taken over seven hours, capturing the Trifid and Lagoon Nebulae – both several thousand light-years from Earth – glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. It reveals these birth places of stars in unprecedented detail, with previously faint or invisible features now clearly visible. Another, dubbed 'The Cosmic Treasure Chest,' shows the universe 'teeming with stars and galaxies – the seemingly empty black pockets of space between stars in the night sky when you look at it with unaided eyes, are transformed here into these glittering tapestries,' said Zeljko Ivezic, director of Rubin construction. Spiral, elliptical, and clustered galaxies appear in vivid reds, blues, and oranges. These colours reveal key details such as distance and size with unmatched precision, helping scientists better understand the universe's expansion history. The colours don't directly match what the naked eye would see, explained scientist Federica Bianco, since the telescope captures a far broader range of wavelengths. Instead, they are representational: infrared is mapped to red to represent cooler objects, while ultraviolet is mapped to blue and indicates warmer ones. 10-year flagship project An interactive version of the image is now available on the Rubin Observatory's website. 'One of the things that is very fun is that if you zoom in and you look at one of the fuzzy galaxies there, you might be the first person to be paying attention to that fuzzy blob,' said Clare Higgs, education and public outreach science lead. The observatory features an advanced 8.4-metre telescope and the largest digital camera ever built, supported by a powerful data system transferring 20 terabytes each night. Roughly the size of a car, the camera captures 3,200-megapixel images. It would take 400 ultra-high-definition televisions stacked together to view a single Rubin image at full resolution. Later this year, the observatory will launch its flagship project, the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). Over the next decade, it will scan the night sky nightly, detecting even the subtlest changes with unmatched precision. Named after pioneering American astronomer Vera C. Rubin – whose research provided the first conclusive evidence for dark matter – the observatory continues her legacy by making dark matter a central focus of its mission. Dark energy, an equally mysterious and immensely powerful force, is believed to drive the accelerating expansion of the universe. Together, dark matter and dark energy are thought to make up 95% of the cosmos, yet their true nature remains unknown. 'By observing up to 20 billion galaxies, we'll study how light from those distant galaxies has reached us – and nearly every galaxy's light has been bent by the gravitational interaction of dark matter that pervades the universe,' said scientist Aaron Roodman. This, he added, will help illuminate these cosmic mysteries. A joint initiative of the US National Science Foundation and Department of Energy, the observatory is also considered one of the most powerful tools ever built for planetary defence. In just 10 hours of observation, Rubin discovered 2,104 previously unknown asteroids in our solar system, including seven near-Earth objects – none of which pose a threat. All other ground- and space-based observatories combined discover about 20,000 new asteroids per year. Chilean pride Chile hosts telescopes from more than 30 countries, including some of the most advanced astronomical instruments in the world – among them the ALMA Observatory, the most powerful radio telescope on Earth. Cerro Tololo Observatory helped achieve the landmark discovery of the universe's accelerating expansion – a breakthrough that earned the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics. Another major project, the Extremely Large Telescope, is slated to begin operations in 2027 and promises to probe previously unreachable cosmic distances.
Yahoo
23-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
First celestial images from 10-year project photographing the universe released
WASHINGTON – Like the first brush strokes on a massive canvas, the first images from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile are a glimpse at the larger picture of our universe to come. The $571-million National Science Foundation and Department of Energy facility on top of the summit of Cerro Pachon will create the largest astronomical movie yet of the Southern Hemisphere over 10 years, known as the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). On Monday, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory revealed its first images of the universe, taken over a period of hours, showcasing the incredible detailed imagery and scale the new facility is capable of. More images and video from these first-look images will be revealed at 11:30 a.m. ET during a live event in Washington. A high-definition stream will be shared live on YouTube here. Aaron Roodman, of Stanford University SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, leader of the LSST camera team, said they chose areas of sky that would be "interesting" for these first images, but it almost didn't matter where they looked. "We're going to see changing objects," Roodman said. "We're going to see moving objects. We're gonna get a view of thousands and thousands of galaxies and stars in any field we look at. So, in some sense, we could have looked anywhere and gotten fantastic images." Who Was Vera Rubin? Dark Matter Astronomer's Legacy Continues Through New Observatory The observatory took two decades to complete and was named after the astronomer credited with the first evidence of dark matter. Many in the scientific community still believe Rubin was overlooked for the Nobel Prize. The brightly colored cosmic landscape below of the Trifid and Lagoon nebulae was taken over seven hours and a combined 678 images. According to the NSF, the clouds of gas and dust are visible due to this image's layering process. Rubin's powerful digital camera was used to capture the Virgo cluster within our home galaxy, the Milky Way. The image below shows two spiral galaxies sparkling in blue, and the ghostly hue of merging galaxies in the upper right. The Rubin Observatory took more than 1,100 images, showcasing about 10 million galaxies. The galaxy map is just .05% of the 20 billion galaxies that will be captured during the course of the 10-year LSST. The speed and power of this new science tool collects petabytes of data – there are more than 1,000 terabytes per petabyte – requiring machine-learning algorithms and data management to process it all. Deputy Director for Data Management Yusra AlSayyad said the telescope will take an image of the night sky every 30 seconds. "That's way too fast for a human to be in the loop and decide where we're going to observe tonight," AlSayyad said. You can think of it as a robotic telescope where we are going to use an automated scheduler. To choose the best parts of the sky to observe tonight, in order to achieve the survey goals that we want." As the LSST camera collects more data, AlSayyad said it will see rare celestial events, only discovered if AI is always article source: First celestial images from 10-year project photographing the universe released
Yahoo
23-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
World's largest telescope unveils first images of galaxies in stunning detail
The first images from a new telescope in Chile were released this week, featuring extraordinarily detailed scenes from deep space. And more are expected to follow the debut series from the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory, which now houses the largest telescope in the world. More than two decades in the making, the giant U.S.-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. The first-look images captured star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. One of them is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The image reveals these stellar nurseries within our Milky Way in unprecedented detail, with previously faint or invisible features now clearly visible. Another image offers a sweeping view of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies. The team also released a video dubbed the "cosmic treasure chest," which begins with a close-up of two galaxies before zooming out to reveal approximately 10 million more. "The Rubin Observatory is an investment in our future, which will lay down a cornerstone of knowledge today on which our children will proudly build tomorrow," said Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Equipped with an advanced 8.4-meter telescope and the largest digital camera ever built, the Rubin Observatory is supported by a powerful data-processing system. Later this year, it will begin its flagship project, the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). Over the next decade, it will scan the night sky nightly, capturing even the subtlest visible changes with unmatched precision. Elana Urbach, a commissioning scientist on the project, told CBS News partner BBC News that one of the observatory's main goals is to "understand the history of the universe." That would mean having the ability to see galaxies or supernova explosions that occurred billions of years ago, according to BBC News. "So, we really need very sharp images," Urbach said. The design of the telescope allows it to capture a lot of light, and, in turn, observe objects that are very far away, Guillem Megias, an optics expert at the Rubin Observatory, told BBC News. Megias noted that, in astronomy, "really far away ... means they come from earlier times." The observatory is named after pioneering American astronomer Vera C. Rubin, whose research provided the first conclusive evidence for the existence of dark matter — a mysterious substance that does not emit light but exerts gravitational influence on galaxies. Dark energy refers to the equally mysterious and immensely powerful force believed to be driving the accelerating expansion of the universe. Together, dark matter and dark energy are thought to make up 95 percent of the cosmos, yet their true nature remains unknown. The observatory, a joint initiative of the U.S. National Science Foundation and Department of Energy, has also been hailed as one of the most powerful tools ever built for tracking asteroids. In just 10 hours of observations, the Rubin Observatory discovered 2,104 previously undetected asteroids in our solar system, including seven near-Earth objects — all of which pose no threat. For comparison, all other ground- and space-based observatories combined discover about 20,000 new asteroids per year. Rubin is also set to be the most effective observatory at spotting interstellar objects passing through the solar system. More images from the observatory are expected to be released later Monday. Kidney dialysis industry accused of maximizing profits over patients Pentagon officials reveal new details about U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear sites Netanyahu reacts to U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear sites
CBS News
23-06-2025
- Science
- CBS News
World's largest telescope unveils first images of distant galaxies in stunning detail: "Cosmic treasure chest"
The first images from a new telescope in Chile were released this week, featuring extraordinarily detailed scenes from deep space. And more are expected to follow the debut series from the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory, which now houses the largest telescope in the world. More than two decades in the making, the giant U.S.-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. The first-look images captured star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. One of them is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula. NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory The image reveals these stellar nurseries within our Milky Way in unprecedented detail, with previously faint or invisible features now clearly visible. Another image offers a sweeping view of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies. Spiral galaxies in the Virgo cluster are pictured among a larger cluster of galaxies. NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory The team also released a video dubbed the "cosmic treasure chest," which begins with a close-up of two galaxies before zooming out to reveal approximately 10 million more. "The Rubin Observatory is an investment in our future, which will lay down a cornerstone of knowledge today on which our children will proudly build tomorrow," said Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Equipped with an advanced 8.4-meter telescope and the largest digital camera ever built, the Rubin Observatory is supported by a powerful data-processing system. Later this year, it will begin its flagship project, the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). Over the next decade, it will scan the night sky nightly, capturing even the subtlest visible changes with unmatched precision. A galactic preview of the unprecedented visuals to come TODAY at 11 a.m. EDT from the NSF-DOE Rubin Observatory. Watch the livestream here: 📹: National Science Foundation (NSF) - U.S. Department of Energy Vera C. Rubin Observatory #CaptureTheCosmos #RubinFirstLook Posted by National Science Foundation (NSF) on Sunday, June 22, 2025 Elana Urbach, a commissioning scientist on the project, told CBS News partner BBC News that one of the observatory's main goals is to "understand the history of the universe." That would mean having the ability to see galaxies or supernova explosions that occurred billions of years ago, according to BBC News. "So, we really need very sharp images," Urbach said. The design of the telescope allows it to capture a lot of light, and, in turn, observe objects that are very far away, Guillem Megias, an optics expert at the Rubin Observatory, told BBC News. Megias noted that, in astronomy, "really far away ... means they come from earlier times." The observatory is named after pioneering American astronomer Vera C. Rubin, whose research provided the first conclusive evidence for the existence of dark matter — a mysterious substance that does not emit light but exerts gravitational influence on galaxies. Dark energy refers to the equally mysterious and immensely powerful force believed to be driving the accelerating expansion of the universe. Together, dark matter and dark energy are thought to make up 95 percent of the cosmos, yet their true nature remains unknown. The observatory, a joint initiative of the U.S. National Science Foundation and Department of Energy, has also been hailed as one of the most powerful tools ever built for tracking asteroids. In just 10 hours of observations, the Rubin Observatory discovered 2,104 previously undetected asteroids in our solar system, including seven near-Earth objects — all of which pose no threat. For comparison, all other ground- and space-based observatories combined discover about 20,000 new asteroids per year. Rubin is also set to be the most effective observatory at spotting interstellar objects passing through the solar system. More images from the observatory are expected to be released later Monday.
