2025年6月4日
A Milky Road to the Rubin Observatory
Image Credit: NSF, DOE, Rubin Obs., Paulo Assunção Lago (Rubin Obs.)
Explanation: Is the sky the same every night? No — the night sky changes every night in many ways. To better explore how the night sky changes, the USA‘s NSF and DOE commissioned the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Cerro Pachón, Chile. In final testing before routine operations, Rubin will begin to explore these nightly changes — slight differences that can tell us much about our amazing universe and its surprising zoo of objects. With a mirror over 8 meters across, Rubin will continually reimage the entire visible sky every few nights to discover new supernovas, potentially dangerous asteroids, faint comets, and variable stars — as well as mapping out the visible universe’s large-scale structure. Pictured, the distant central band of our Milky Way Galaxy appears to flow out from the newly operational observatory. Taken last month, the featured picture is a composite of 21 images across the night sky, capturing airglow on the horizon and the Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy on the lower left.
APOD Turns 30!: Free Public Lecture in Anchorage on June 11
Tomorrow’s picture: open space
银河与鲁宾天文台
影像提供: NSF, DOE, Rubin Obs., Paulo Assunção Lago (Rubin Obs.)
说明: 每晚的天空景观都一样吗？并不是, 夜空在多个面向上每晚都有变化。为了要深入探索夜空如何改变，美国的国家科家基金会及能源部，启用了位于智利 帕琼峰的薇拉·鲁宾天文台（Vera C. Rubin Observatory）。刚在今年初建造完成的鲁宾天文台，已开始探测夜晚的微小变化，以深入了解奇妙的宇宙及其中的各式各样天体。配备8米口径镜面的鲁宾望远镜，每隔数晚就会在可见光波段完成对整个天空进行重新拍照的工作，以期能找到新的超新星、高危害小行星、昏暗彗星、变星、及绘制可见宇宙大尺度结构的分布图。在这幅影像里，远处的银河系中央盘面看似从这座刚上线的天文台流泛而出。这幅摄于上个月某晚、由21张照片组合而成的主题影像，还额外记录了地平线附近的气辉及小麦哲伦星系（SMC；右下）。
APOD 30岁啦！: 6月11日在安克雷奇举办免费公开讲座
明日的图片: open space
