Northeastern University astrophysicist Jonathan C. Blazek knew to expect stunning views of galaxies when the new Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile released its first images of the night sky on June 23.
And the sights were extraordinary. With a telescope as wide as a tennis court and the world’s largest digital camera, the observatory captured more than 10 million galaxies in one image.
Planetary defense
What surprised Blazek, an expert in observational and theoretical astronomy, was the observatory’s detection of 2,104 new asteroids, including seven near-Earth objects.
“Seeing those asteroids was amazing. In several nights, they discovered thousands of asteroids that have never been seen before. I was not expecting that,” he says.
Asteroid detection is just part of the observatory’s overall mission, but it can play an important role in planetary defense, Blazek says.
“The fact that we’ve been around for a long time as a species means we don’t get hit by big things that often,” he says. “But it’s possible, and this is by far the best tool we’ve ever had to find asteroids that might be a problem.”
“There’s also an intermediate category of objects which are not necessarily planet killers” but could still cause destruction, Blazek says. He cites the example of the Tunguska asteroid that exploded over a sparsely populated area in Siberia on June 30, 1908, flattening millions of trees and setting off massive forest fires.
“If that happened now in a populated area, you would want to have some warning to get people out of the way,” or to use asteroid-redirecting technology, he says. “This gives you that warning.”
Read more at Northeastern Global News.
Photo: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory
