A new Observatory on a mountaintop in Chile began a survey in 2025 that could transform astronomy. The Vera C Rubin Observatory, named for the astronomer who found conclusive evidence for the existence of mysterious dark matter in the universe, uses the largest digital camera ever built to, among other things, reveal anything that changes in the southern sky over time, from asteroids and comets in our solar system to variable stars, supernova explosions, and interstellar objects. The resulting ultra-high-definition time-lapse map of billions of celestial objects could also provide insights into the nature of dark matter and dark energy--the enigmatic force that appears to be driving galaxies apart at an accelerating pace—and perhaps yet-to-be discovered cosmic phenomena. Dr. Sandrine Thomas will discuss the Rubin Observatory’s early results, its history and objectives, and the innovative system built to handle the tidal wave of data it produces every day.

Dr. Thomas is Deputy Director for Construction and Associate Director for the Rubin Observatory Summit Operation.

The library's “Science and Society - Making Sense of the World Around Us” lecture series is co-organized and moderated by Fred Dylla, Executive Director Emeritus of the American Institute of Physics and author of Scientific Journeys, Linda Dylla, former public information officer at the Jefferson Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy, and Colin Norman, the former News Editor at Science.

NOTE: this meeting is being conducted through Zoom. You MUST REGISTER to receive instructions for joining the meeting.

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Basic written instructions for using Zoom may be found here and a brief video tutorial may be found here. Closed captioning is available for all our sessions. Information on enabling closed captioning in Zoom may be found here.