Vera C. Rubin Observatory

Chile’s Vera C. Rubin Observatory has begun displaying its first images of the cosmos, allowing astronomers to figure out how the solar system formed and even whether an asteroid poses a threat to Earth.

• The observatory boasts the world’s largest digital camera. The released images include one of a southern region of the Virgo Cluster capturing a stunning 10 million galaxies. That was just 0.05% of the 20 billion galaxies the telescope is expected to capture with its car-sized digital camera in the coming decade.

• C. Rubin Observatory is named after American astronomer Vera C. Rubin, a pioneer in finding conclusive evidence of the existence of large amounts of invisible material known as dark matter.