New Telescope Captures The Cosmos In Groundbreaking Detail

Science Friday

Science Friday and WNYC Studios

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🗓️ 26 June 2025

⏱️ 13 minutes

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Summary

The telescope has the largest digital camera ever made. It's so precise that one image alone contains 10 million galaxies.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Flor Lichten here, and you are listening to Science Friday.
0:07.0	Today in the podcast, a dazzling new glimpse of the universe.
0:12.1	Just the number of stars that are in those images just keeps blowing my mind over and over again every time I open them up.
0:23.6	In Break, over and over again every time I open them up. In breaking space news, the very first images from the brand new Vera C. Rubin Observatory have been unveiled.
0:32.6	This massive telescope sits high atop a mountain in the Chilean Andes, and it's equipped with the largest
0:39.1	digital camera on the planet. It is producing cosmic glam shots that are giving us a brand new
0:45.7	view of the universe. Here with the details is Dr. Federica Bianco, an astrophysicist at the University
0:51.5	of Delaware and the Deputy Project Scientist for the
0:54.2	Viracy Rubin Observatory. Welcome to Science Friday. Thank you. I'm very excited to be here.
0:59.6	It's nice to have something to celebrate. Indeed. And it's been a long way we've been building
1:04.7	this observatory for upwards of 20 years. I have personally been involved for upwards of 10. So yeah, a long way.
1:13.5	Is it like graduation day? What does it feel like?
1:17.3	It's, is it like graduation day? Yeah, maybe. It's just, you know, I think I'm still processing
1:23.7	and I'm still digesting it. And part of it is because the images look so good
1:28.2	that maybe they don't really even look real to my eyes. I mean, are they better than you expected?
1:34.7	I think so, yes, they are. Yeah. Really? I think they're more sensational. The gradient of
1:41.2	colors that we see is just mind-blowing. The number, just the number of stars
1:47.2	that are in those images just keeps blowing my mind over and over again every time I open them up.
1:52.0	I can hear it in your voice, but translate it for us non-astronomers. Why is this such a big deal?
1:58.7	Why is this so exciting? Yeah. So this survey is really a significant step
2:07.3	about anything else that has been done before. Over the course of 10 years, we will look at as much
2:13.4	of the sky that you can see from an observatory that is on the ground, with its feet on Earth.
	...

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