THE NEW VERA C. RUBIN OBSERVATORY

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory atop Cerro Pachón in Chile recently experienced first light last night, and released the above photo.

But before focusing on that new telescope, the latest summary of what is occurring in the Israel and USA vs Iran War, where controlled orchestration seems to be the mode of operation.

• Iran did "take revenge" at Trump's attack on its nuclear facilities by lobbing a few missiles into U.S.'s Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.
• However, Iran first alerted Qatar that this was coming, with a sense that we are not at war with you, but only hate America.  Sort of Trump saying we are not at war with Iran, but only its nuclear facilities.  There were no casualties at the U.S. base.
• Of course, Qatar informed the U.S., so the ten missiles were all intercepted and destroyed in the air.
• It seems that Iran had to satisfy it's people, so on TV exaggerated the magnitude of its attack.
• There are more than 50,000 American troops scattered throughout the Middle East, so these bases and embassies are aware of the coming danger and know what to do.

• If that was the full extent of Iran's efforts, then tensions could ease.  If not, then who knows.
• Of course, Israel still needs to send demolition teams to the three nuclear facilities to totally destroy them, for bunker-busters might not have accomplished the task.  But no U.S. boots on this coming attack.

Flash news!  President Donald Trump announced a cease fire in the Israel and USA vs Iran War.  Iran seems inclined to agree, but has Israel?  If the war is over, Trump is a hero.  Can't believe I'm saying this.

So on to the Vera C. Rubin Observatory.

• First, who is she?
• Passed away in 2016 at the age of 88 on Christmas Day.
• She was an American astronomer who was born in Philadelphia in 1928.
• Built her own cardboard telescope while young with her father.
• Was advised by a high school science teacher to become an artist.

• 
  Instead went to Vassar and in 1948 earned a B.S. in astronomy.  She was the only one in her class with this major.
• Wanted to go to graduate school at Princeton, but only males were then accepted.
• She was accepted to Harvard, but instead got engaged and went to Cornell, where her future husband went.
• At that time, Cornell was not known for any excellence in astronomy, with only four faculty members in this field.
• 
  Fortunately, in the Physics department was Philip Morrison (left), who had worked on the Manhattan Project, and with Giuseppe Cocconi in 1959 wrote the first paper proposing a search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

• 
  Also in the Physics Department were future Nobel laureates Hans Bethe and Richard Rubin, who advised her.
• A recent mother, she gave a paper on her theory of the universe at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society while in graduate school, which got universally negative feedback.  She just doesn't know when to give up.
• 
  Got a master's degree from Cornell in 1951.  Frank Drake came to Cornell in 1964, followed by Carl Sagan in 1968.

• 
  At the age of 23, pregnant with her second child, Rubin went to Georgetown University, earning a PhD in 1954 under George Gamow, who was then teaching at George Washington University.  Gamow is big time, from Russia, known as a polymath (meaning really smart), who worked on the Big Bang Theory and was a key figure in quantum tunneling.
• 
  Wandered about for a decade, joined the Carnegie Institute, and became the first female astronomer permitted to observe at the Palomar observatory in 1965, but early on only on a limited basis because there was no woman restroom.  You get the idea that she broke barriers regarding females in astronomy?  Being Jewish also didn't help.
• Published 150 papers on the expanding universe, quasars, the Andromeda Galaxy and black holes, but gained especial prominence with Dark Matter.

• 
  Her four children all got PhDs in math or science.
• Retired from Carnegie in 2014.
• Should have won a Nobel Prize, but was largely snubbed.  Mostly because she was female, was never fully credited for her work on Dark Matter.

• 
  However, in 2019, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope was renamed the Vera C. Rubin Observatory.  This facility will focus on the study of dark matter and dark energy.
• 
  Is on one of the new 2025 U.S. quarters.
• Said:

Don't let anyone keep you down for silly reasons such as who you are. And don't worry about prizes and fame. The real prize is finding something new out there.^[88]

So about the Vera C. Rubin Observatory.

• Site construction began in 2015.
• First light came on 23June2025....TODAY!
• Has the World's largest digital camera.

• 
  How to get there.
• From New York City, it is a 10-12 hour-long flight to Santiago, Chile.
• Then, another flight to La Serena.
• A little more than 60 miles by road to the observatory.  You need to arrange this ahead of time.  You can drive, but you must have a 4x4 with roll bars, plus training by a safety team.
• The facility is at an elevation of 8684 feet, so you need to take special precautions.

The first full-image from the Rubin Observatory was the Virgo cluster.

Note two prominent spiral galaxies, three merging galaxies (upper right), stars from our Milky Way Galaxy and groups of distant galaxies.

Below is a small section of the Virgo cluster, plus stars in our Milky Way and galaxies further away.

Finally, an annotated version of 10 million galaxies.

That pink photo at the top of this posting combines 678 separate images taken over 7 hours of observing time.  This Trifod-Lagoon image shows two nebulae, or stellar nurseries, highlighting regions of gas and dust.  Why pink?  That's the color of emission light from excited hydrogen atoms within the nebula.

If you have 3 hours to spare, watch this video of these first photos, explaining all the above, details on these photos and more.  Absolutely fascinating.

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