First images from Vera Rubin observatory released

MacLeech

Website here:
https://rubinobservatory.org/news/rubin-first-look (currently overwhelmed by traffic)
Live stream on YouTube here:

NPR article:
https://www.npr.org/2025/06/23/nx-s1-5355034/vera-c-rubin-observatory-first-images

Already, in just over 10 hours of test observations, the observatory has discovered 2,104 never-before-seen-asteroids, including seven near-Earth asteroids, none of which pose any danger.

https://rubinobservatory.org/explore/how-rubin-works/technology/data

Rubin Observatory generates about 20 terabytes of data every 24 hours—it would take you over three years of watching Netflix, or over 50 years of listening to Spotify, to use that amount of data.

It takes just 60 seconds to transfer an image from Chile to California in the US, compare the new image to older images to identify changes, and generate alerts based on those changes.

At the end of the ten-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time, Rubin Observatory will have generated about 60 petabytes (60,000,000 gigabytes) of raw image data.

Skyviewer App to view images
https://skyviewer.app

MacLeech

https://rubinobservatory.org/news/first-alerts

February 25, 2026
NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory has issued its first scientific alerts, marking a historic milestone in astrophysics. Expected to increase to seven million alerts per night, these first alerts start a new era of dynamic, real-time observation of the night sky.
…
Among the first alerts are detections of supernovae, variable stars, active galactic nuclei, and objects whizzing around our Solar System, such as asteroids. The beginning of scientific alerts is one of the last major milestones before Rubin Observatory begins its Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) later this year.