University of Arizona researchers played crucial role in developing Vera C. Rubin Observatory

Almost 30 years ago, scientists first had the idea for the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. This week, its team made international news by releasing its first images that stunned many.

Arizona researchers played a crucial role.

One of the images released this week portrays two pink and blue nebulas thousands of lightyears away surrounded by clouds of amber gas and dust and countless stars.

The 27-foot telescope will complete a survey of the heavens over the next decade by imaging the entire night sky every few days in order to get a better understanding of dark energy.

"The kind of telescope that is needed to study dark matter by doing a survey of the whole sky to a very deep depth, needs a really large mirror for a large collecting area so that you're getting a lot of light and it needs to have a really wide field of view," said Buell Jannuzi, director of the Steward Observatory at the University of Arizona.

A large mirror for a telescope is like a bucket that gathers light. The bigger the bucket, the more light you can gather. The observatory's mirror was built at UA.

“At the Richard F. Caris Mirror lab at the University of Arizona, we're the only place in the world that can make 8.4 meter mirrors as a single mirror," Jannuzi said.

He says he looks forward to the amount of information that will be available to both citizen and professional scientists.

“I think Ruben will help inspire because it is a triumph of engineering and software development and physics and astronomy. It's an opportunity for people to see I can be part of something like that," Jannuzi said.