Space

Distant nebulae star in one of the first images from the Rubin Observatory

The facility will scan the entire southern sky every few nights

The Lagoon Nebula, which looks like an elongated red cloud of dust, in the center of a smokey orange backdrop. The Trifid Nebula sits to the upper right and appears like a circle of red surrounded by hazy blue.

The Lagoon Nebula (center) and Trifid Nebula (top right) are featured in one of the Rubin Observatory’s first publicly released images. This picture combines almost 700 separate images captured by the facility across seven hours. The observatory will begin a 10-year survey of the southern sky in late 2025.

NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory

By McKenzie Prillaman

Updated

Clouds of gas and dust swirl within star-birthing regions 4,000 light-years away, seen in more detail than ever before.