Rubin Observatory begins 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time

August 19, 2026 at 09:30 AM2 min

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On 30 June 2026, the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory formally announced the start of its Legacy Survey of Space and Time. From Cerro Pachon, Chile, the observatory now takes a new detailed image about every 40 seconds and plans about 800 returns to each survey point over ten years.

Key Facts

The LSST Camera contains 3,200 megapixels and weighs about 3,000 kilograms.
The camera was built at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California, shipped to Chile in May 2024, and installed on the Simonyi Survey Telescope in March 2025.
Rubin's focal plane is assembled from 189 charge-coupled devices, and its sensors are held near minus 100 degrees Celsius.
The survey began in June, but the alerts began in February.
A single exposure would need hundreds of ultra-high-definition televisions to display at full scale.

The LSST Camera

The LSST Camera contains 3,200 megapixels, or 3.2 billion light-sensitive picture elements. It weighs about 3,000 kilograms and is approximately the size of a small car, though roughly twice as heavy. Its focal plane is assembled from 189 charge-coupled devices, and its sensors are held near minus 100 degrees Celsius to reduce spurious bright pixels. The instrument was built at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California, shipped to Chile in May 2024, and installed on the Simonyi Survey Telescope in March 2025. A single exposure would need hundreds of ultra-high-definition televisions to display at full scale.

Survey Cadence

Rubin's survey takes a new detailed image about every 40 seconds during nighttime observations, including exposure, readout and repositioning. The observatory produces roughly a thousand images on a typical night and covers its broad southern footprint every few nights. Over ten years, the plan is to return to each point in the survey footprint about 800 times. The sky is not captured all at once, and poor weather, daylight, the Moon and seasonal visibility still apply. The phrase 'the entire southern sky every few nights' is survey shorthand for repeatedly covering the accessible southern footprint, not a claim that one exposure sees a hemisphere.

Early Alert Activity

Rubin had already taken commissioning images and started sending alerts before 30 June. The survey began in June, but the alerts began in February. The camera was shipped to Chile in May 2024, when the survey was still a promise, and the shipment to Cerro Pachon was carefully monitored.