Alumni Alumna’s Namesake Observatory Takes a Deep Dive Into the Cosmos Stories You May Like Barrier-Breaking Astronomer Graces a U.S. Quarter Blue Origin’s Gary Lai ’95 Rockets to (Suborbital) Space Alumna’s Galactic Quest Proved Existence of Dark Matter The facility, which honors astronomer Vera Cooper Rubin, MS ’51, has released its first images—and they're mind-blowing By Joe Wilensky It’s the dawn of a new era in ground-based celestial observations, thanks to a telescope and observatory named for a pioneering alumni astronomer. In late June 2025, scientists at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory—named for Vera Cooper Rubin, MS ’51—made headlines worldwide with its first batch of images. Media described the ultra-high-def visuals as “amazing,” “stunning,” and “unveiling the universe as we’ve never seen it before.” The star-forming Trifid Nebula. And this is just the observatory’s opening act. These incredibly detailed images—which show millions of galaxies, stars, asteroids, and nebulae—are a tiny glimpse at the vast potential of this innovative and powerful facility. The Rubin Observatory will be able to create vividly detailed time-lapse videos of entire swaths of the night sky—highlighting far more than a static snapshot ever could—and therefore chart distant cosmic events like supernova explosions and pulsating stars. Much closer to home, it will identify asteroids in our solar system that were invisible to all previous observational equipment. The incredibly detailed images—which show millions of galaxies, stars, asteroids, and nebulae—are a tiny glimpse at the observatory's vast potential. As the National Science Foundation’s chief of staff puts it: the observatory “will capture more information about our universe than all optical telescopes throughout history combined.” The facility—which boasts the world’s largest telescope, a 3,200-megapixel digital camera, and a host of cutting-edge data- and image-processing capabilities—sits on a mountaintop nearly 9,000 feet above sea level. It’s located at the edge of Chile’s Atacama Desert—home to several other observatories, thanks to its dry atmosphere and dramatically dark night skies. Carnegie Institution for Science ArchivesRubin in a 1980s-era portrait. (They include the soon-to-be completed Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope, an international project led by Cornell; it's named for another alum, Fred Young ’64, MEng ’66, MBA ’66, its principal benefactor.) In just its first 10 hours after coming online, the Rubin telescope discovered more than 2,000 previously invisible asteroids in the solar system. That staggering total, however, will be dwarfed by the estimated 20 billion galaxies it’s expected to chart during its decade-long survey, which is planned to begin later this year. Workers are dwarfed as a crane lifts the observatory’s car-sized camera. That project—titled the Legacy Survey of Space and Time—will chart what the observatory’s scientific team has described as an “ultrawide, ultra-high-definition time-lapse record of the universe.” (Images and videos are being posted on the observatory’s YouTube channel.) In just its first 10 hours after coming online, the telescope discovered more than 2,000 previously invisible asteroids in the solar system. The project is a fitting tribute to Rubin, a member of the National Academy of Sciences who won both the U.S. National Medal of Science and the Gold Medal from the U.K.’s Royal Astronomical Society. She passed away in 2016 at age 88, having continued her work into her final years. Stories You May Like Barrier-Breaking Astronomer Graces a U.S. Quarter Blue Origin’s Gary Lai ’95 Rockets to (Suborbital) Space U.S. MintOn a 2025 U.S. quarter. (Among her more recent honors: being featured in the 2025 American Women Quarters Program—the first time a Cornellian has ever been depicted on a circulating U.S. coin.) Rubin spent decades gathering evidence to prove the existence of dark matter—analyzing the irregular rotation of stars around galaxies. Her research led her to believe that this unseen material not only binds entire galaxies, but comprises more than 80% of the universe’s mass. As colleague Martha Haynes, Cornell’s Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences in Astronomy Emerita, has said: “She was always curious about what makes galaxies tick.” In 1985, Rubin presented data to the International Astronomical Union that ultimately changed scientific conceptions of the universe, opening new paths in both astronomy and physics. A central part of the Rubin Observatory’s mission: to better understand the nature of dark matter, among other large-scale cosmic questions. Here's a sampling of the Rubin Observatory’s eye-popping images! A combination of more than 1,100 photos, this view (titled Cosmic Treasure Chest) includes about 10 million galaxies—.05% of the 20 billion the observatory plans to capture over the next decade. The Trifid (top right) and Lagoon nebulae, both located within our own galaxy—and several thousand light-years from Earth. This small section of the Virgo Cluster includes two prominent spiral galaxies, three merging galaxies, and near and distant galaxy groups, along with stars in our own Milky Way. The open star cluster Bochum 14, some 2,150 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius. A close-up of two spiral galaxies in the Virgo Cluster. Top: The observatory, with the Milky Way visible above. (All images courtesy of the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory / NOIR Lab, unless otherwise indicated.) Published June 26, 2025 Leave a Comment Cancel replyOnce your comment is approved, your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment * Name * Class Year Email * Save my name, email, and class year in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ Other stories You may like Students Master’s Student Advocates for Afghanistan’s Girls and Women Quizzes & Puzzles Far(ther) Above: The Campus Stairways Quiz Alumni Alum Memorialized with Campaign to Promote His Made-Up Word