The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile is ushering in a new era of big-data astronomy by creating an expansive time-lapse movie of the night sky over the next decade. Preliminary data from the observatory has already revealed fascinating phenomena, including exceptionally fast-rotating large asteroids and early detections of interstellar visitors.
The first test images from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory have captured light from millions of distant stars and galaxies, and are expected to reveal thousands of previously unseen asteroids. The observatory is expected to revolutionize our understanding of the universe.
NASA’s Lucy spacecraft obtained a close look at asteroid Donaldjohanson, a uniquely shaped fragment formed about 150 million years ago, during a flyby on April 20, 2025. The asteroid appears to be an elongated contact binary with an odd shape and is approximately 5 miles long and 2 miles wide.
