Unlike traditional telescopes, which take individual images of the sky, the Rubin Observatory, located in Chile, continuously monitors the night sky, taking a new image every 40 seconds. This provides an unprecedented view of the Universe, allowing the detection of subtle changes such as movements, flares and shifts in brightness. Thanks to its ultra-high-resolution camera, it captures objects that are inaccessible to conventional telescopes.
By scanning the same areas of the sky over and over again, the observatory's telescope provides real-time data, allowing scientists to study rapid changes in the universe that traditional telescopes could not previously provide. This is a breakthrough in space observations, the publication says.
Previously, astronomers had detected only hundreds or thousands of such events per year, but the new system increased this figure to hundreds of thousands per night. This significantly changes the approach to space exploration and allows us to quickly respond to phenomena such as star explosions or the passage of asteroids.
One area where the observatory is already making significant contributions is in the study of supernovae, exploding stars used to measure cosmic distances.
Data processing occurs automatically using machine learning algorithms that highlight the most important events for further analysis.
Scientists note that such technologies open up the possibility of detecting previously unknown space objects and phenomena, and also significantly expand the possibilities of studying supernovae and other short-term processes in the Universe.
