Free Astronomy Magazine March-April 2024

49 MARCH-APRIL 2024 ASTRO PUBLISHING ical observatories are critical to this process. Vera C. Rubin Observatory, jointly funded by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) and the US Department of Energy (DOE), will soon start producing one of the largest and most uniform astronom- ical data sets scientists have ever had, providing them with a treasure trove of information they can use to plan and prepare the next genera- tion of scientifically rewarding and ambitious space missions. Rubin Observatory is located in Chile and will begin science opera- tions in late 2025. Rubin Observa- V iew of Rubin Observatory at sunset in December 2023. The 8.4-meter telescope at Rubin Obser- vatory, equipped with the highest- resolution digital camera in the world, will take enormous images of the southern hemisphere sky, covering the entire sky every few nights. Rubin will do this over and over for 10 years, creating a time- lapse view of the Universe that’s unlike anything we’ve seen before. [RubinObs/NSF/AURA/H. Stockebrand]