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The Vera C. Rubin telescope has released a trial dataset — millions of objects and dozens of new asteroids.
Abstract
The first preliminary data release (DP1) from the Vera Rubin Observatory includes 1792 exposures taken in late 2024 with the commissioning camera LSSTComCam on the Simonyi Survey Telescope. The images, with a median seeing (FWHM) of about 1.14 arcseconds, cover 15 square degrees in six photometric bands ugrizy. The 5σ limiting magnitudes for point sources in the deepest field (Extended Chandra Deep Field South) are u=24.55, g=26.18, r=25.96, i=25.71, z=25.07, y=23.1; the remaining fields are at most 2.2 magnitudes shallower. The catalog contains about 2.3 million objects, including 1.6 million extended sources and 431 Solar System objects, among them 93 new ones. The data volume is 3.5 TB, available through the cloud-based Rubin Science Platform. Despite the modest scale compared to future LSST releases, the high quality and diversity of the data enable a wide range of early science investigations.
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Astronomers have tested the new Vera C. Rubin telescope in Chile, much like adjusting the focus and aperture on a brand-new camera. The first images covered a patch of sky the size of 60 full Moons—and immediately revealed millions of galaxies and stars. The imaging was done in various colors, from invisible ultraviolet to thermal infrared. This technique—photometry—lets you determine the composition of distant galaxies by their color, just as you can tell what a metal is by its hue. Among the stationary stars, the camera caught moving specks—93 unknown asteroids. But the real discovery lies ahead. Starting in 2026, the telescope will survey the entire sky every three nights, turning a static picture into a movie. Then we will see supernovae ignite and how invisible dark matter, like an invisible hand, bends the light.
🎯 The total volume of data from this test run is 3.5 terabytes, roughly the equivalent of 700 full-length HD movies.
🎬 In the movie 'Armageddon,' an asteroid is spotted too late. Surveys like this will help detect dangerous objects well in advance.
