A telescope even more powerful than James Webb promises mind-blowing images

A new cosmic heavyweight is joining the stage—and it won’t replace James Webb so much as amplify it. In June 2025, the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory released its first sky images and is slated to begin science operations later in 2025.¹

A New Giant Takes Its Place Among The Stars

Since 2021, James Webb has dazzled with deep, infrared close-ups of the early universe. Rubin, rising in Chile, is built for something different: a wide-field, time-domain survey that watches the sky change. With its 3.2-gigapixel LSST Camera, Rubin will scan, alert, and revisit—so when the universe blinks, we see it.

A Sweeping Eye On The Universe

Perched on Cerro Pachón at about 2,715 meters (≈8,900 ft), Rubin uses a novel three-mirror design to sweep vast sky areas quickly.² Over the main survey it will image the southern sky every few nights (roughly every three), enabling a ten-year time-lapse of the cosmos.³

Did you know?
Each Rubin image spans an area equivalent to ~45 full Moons—a single shot rich with galaxies, stars, and moving objects.

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A Nightly Data Avalanche

This isn’t about pretty pictures; it’s about data. Rubin is expected to generate ~20 terabytes per night, then stream rapid alerts for anything that changed.⁴ Over ten years, the survey will catalog on the order of 20 billion galaxies and tens of billions of stars—an unprecedented map for dark matter and dark energy studies.

Did you know?
Rubin’s pipeline issues alerts within ~60 seconds of an exposure—so telescopes worldwide can react in near real time.

When The World Works Together

Like most modern mega-projects, Rubin is deeply international. While the camera was led by SLAC in the US, French partners contribute at scale on the data side: the CC-IN2P3 center in Lyon will help store and process Rubin’s torrent of observations.⁵

Not A Rival, But A Partner

Think of Webb as the deep-sea diver and Rubin as the aerial surveyor. Rubin finds the transients—supernovae, kilonovae, odd flares, near-Earth objects—then Webb (and others) zoom in. It’s complementary by design: Rubin’s cadence discovers; follow-up telescopes decode.

Eyes On Planet Nine—And Beyond

Rubin’s nightly sweep could also aid the search for the hypothesized Planet Nine by tracking faint, slow movers in the outer solar system—if it exists, Rubin data may reveal it over the coming years. (Emphasis on may: it remains unconfirmed.)

The Next Era Of Discovery Is Here

Rubin is a time machine, a warning system, and a cartographer rolled into one. It won’t replace Webb; it will supercharge it—capturing motion and patterns that used to slip past us, then handing off targets for forensic detail. With first images in hand and survey operations imminent, the universe’s live feed is about to get a lot sharper.

Footnotes

1. Ever-changing Universe Revealed in First Imagery From Rubin Observatory — Rubin Observatory: https://rubinobservatory.org/news/first-imagery-rubin
2. Visiting Cerro Pachón — LSST Project Office (PDF): https://project.lsst.org/sites/default/files/Visiting%20Cerro%20Pachon_3.pdf
3. About Rubin Observatory (survey cadence; “entire sky in three nights”) — LSST.org: https://www.lsst.org/about
4. NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory (key numbers; ~20 TB/night) — NOIRLab: https://noirlab.edu/public/programs/vera-c-rubin-observatory/
5. The LSST Camera Installed; CC-IN2P3 Lyon to Contribute Storage & Processing — LAPP/IN2P3: https://www.lapp.in2p3.fr/en/2025-03-science-en-8569