The Vera C. Rubin Observatory starts an amazing project.

The LSST is now underway!

We've talked before about the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile. This new telescope aims to image large parts of the southern sky every few nights in unprecedented detail. 

After decades of planning and construction and years of testing and fine tuning, it has now started its main project.

The largest survey of the southern sky, the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), is now underway.  During this 10-year project,  Rubin will constantly observe the entire southern sky every few nights to create an ultra-wide, ultra-high-definition time-lapse record of our Universe. 

When running at full tilt, the 8.4 metre Rubin telescope will take a 3,200 mega pixel image every 40 seconds, allowing astronomers to keep an eye out for night-to-night changes.

We used to think of the Universe as hardly ever changing, simply moving above us on a clockwork-like schedule. We now know that there are constant changes and Rubin might see up to seven million of these changes, or transient phenomena, every night.

“Today, we begin filming the greatest cosmic movie ever made,” says Brian Stone, performing the duties of the NSF Director. “This moment reflects decades of vision, innovation, and the power of federal investment in science through the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy. Every night, NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory will expand the frontiers of knowledge and strengthen America's global leadership in science and innovation.”

Rubin will not just scan for changes in our galaxy and beyond, it will find stunning numbers of yet-undiscovered objects in the Solar System, cataloguing millions of asteroids and comets. 

Read more here.

The Milky Way is even larger than we thought

Does this mean there's even more of our galaxy to image? Sadly, no.....

XMM-Newton & Chandra revise distance to the outer spiral arms

Sometimes when you're living in the middle of something, it can be hard to work out exactly what surrounds you. This is even more so when you're orbiting one of maybe 100-400 billion stars in the Milky Way. (The exact number is still unknown and this is just an estimate.) Even more confusing is that we're embedded deep in one of the arms of the Milky Way and our view of the far side of the galaxy is blocked by gas, dust and billions of stars. In fact there is some debate about how many arms the Milky Way actually has!

Estimates about the Milky Way have been based on observing the way stars move and how the galaxy rotates. However this leave a lot of room for error.

Astronomers are trying to change this by studying data from the studying X-ray data from ESA's XMM-Newton and NASA's Chandra observatories. They've noticed that explosions or gamma ray bursts (GRB) in other galaxies produce x-rays.

“Instead, we did something new: we looked at the aftermath of three cosmic explosions that took place in far more distant galaxies. These explosions flung out X-rays that echoed through several of the Milky Way’s outer arms – and we measured the distances to these echoes directly.” said Beatrice Vaia of Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Italy, who led the research as part of her PhD.

By studying how these ring-shaped echoes slowly expanded over time, Beatrice and colleagues were able to pinpoint the distance of the scattering dust grains. As these lie in clouds within the arms of our galaxy, the team could directly measure the distance of the arms. Besides confirming the known distance to the Perseus arm, the scientists found that two of the Milky Way galaxy’s arms – Outer Scutum-Centaurus Arm and Outer Arm – lie up to 10% further away than we thought.

Can I photograph the Outer Scutum-Centaurus Arm and Outer Arm?

No, not really. They're heavily blocked stars and dust and can't be seen in visible light.

Read more about the new size of the Milky Way here.

Even more signs of possible life found on Mars

Another pointer to past life, but again we can't say for certain life once existed on the Red Planet

NASA's Perseverance Rover. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

There's been a number of major announcements that hint at past life on Mars.

The Mars Perseverance Rover (or "Percy" to its friends) has been exploring the Jezero crater since 2021, and one of the major mission objectives has been to look for signs of past life.  Now researchers have announced that the most complex organic molecules even detected on Mars have been found in a rock outcrop dubbed "Blue Angel".

Samples collected in 2024 have been found to contain macromolecular carbon (MMC). These are large networks of carbon atoms which are often found in Earth rocks containing fossilized biological carbon and meteorites. 

We're not sure exactly how these molecules were formed. Billions of years ago, a river channel carried water and sediment into Jezero crater. Fine-grained sediment settled to the bottom before eventually hardening into the mudstone rocks the team analysed.

"While the specific formation mechanism of the MMC detected in the Bright Angel mudstones remains unknown, this is still one of the most exciting findings to date," said Ashley Murphy, a Planetary Science Institute postdoctoral researcher.

What's even more tantalizing is this discovery of organic molecules at Jezero is over 3000km from the organics found by the Curiosity Rover and found close to the surface too. This means that whatever the mechanism that caused them, could have been widespread across Mars.

Again, this is not an announcement of the discovery of life on Mars. Organic materials can be formed by non-biological processes and the rovers on Mars don't have the ability to directly look at samples to detect life. For life to be fully confirmed either astronauts need land on Mars or the samples left on the surface by Percy are collected and returned to Earth for analysis in labs here.

Cheers,

Earl White

BINTEL

4th July 2026