New NSF telescope aims to discover unknowns in space

This image combines 678 separate images taken by NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory in just over seven hours of observing time. Combining many images in this way clearly reveals otherwise faint or invisible details, such as the clouds of gas and dust that comprise the Trifid nebula (top) and the Lagoon nebula, which are several thousand light-years away from Earth. Courtesy: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory

The National Science Foundation and Department of Energy unveiled a new observatory on Monday that features a powerful telescope capable of delivering precise imagery of outer space. 

The Legacy Survey of Space and Time telescope will be housed in the new NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory. Located in Chile and jointly funded by the two agencies, the observatory’s telescope is engineered with the largest digital camera ever constructed. The LSST camera’s 3200 megapixel resolution scans the sky intermittently to ...