这座能够每三天扫描整个南天星空的大型天文台，或将揭开从暗物质到第九行星等一系列宇宙谜题。

With the ability to scan the entire southern night sky every three days, the huge Vera C. Rubin Observatory could be about to start solving the mysteries of the universe, from dark matter to Planet Nine.

海拔2600多米的智利帕琼山顶空气稀薄。夜幕降临后，银河的亮度远超平常，大小麦哲伦云隐约可见。而鲁宾望远镜的视野则深远得多——这台重达350吨的反射式望远镜配备世界最大的数码相机和镜头，其8.4米的主镜尺寸几乎达到山顶隧道运输极限的8.5米。Atop Chile's Cerro Pachón mountain at over 2,600 meters altitude, the thin air makes breathing difficult. After nightfall, the Milky Way shines with exceptional brilliance, with the Magellanic Clouds faintly visible. Yet the Rubin Telescope's vision extends infinitely further—this 350-ton reflecting telescope features the world's largest digital camera and lens, its 8.4-meter primary mirror nearly reaching the 8.5-meter transportation limit of the mountain tunnel.

尽管体积庞大，该望远镜却能高速运转，每三天即可完成一次南天全景扫描。相比传统巡天项目耗时数周甚至数月，鲁宾天文台仅需不到72小时，并将持续进行长达十年的周期性观测。

Despite its massive scale, the telescope operates with remarkable speed, completing a full southern sky survey every three days. Compared to traditional sky surveys requiring weeks or months, Rubin Observatory achieves this in under 72 hours, repeating this feat cyclically for a decade.

首批测试图像摄于智利帕琼山约10小时的观测数据。上图右上象限的粉色与蓝色球体是银河系内的恒星形成区——三叶星云，中央为巨大的星际气体尘埃云——礁湖星云。天文学家通过整合鲁宾望远镜7小时内拍摄的678张照片合成此图。

The initial test images were captured during approximately 10 hours of observation at Cerro Pachón. The upper right quadrant of the first image shows the pink and blue Trifid Nebula—a stellar nursery in our galaxy—with the vast interstellar gas and dust cloud of the Lagoon Nebula at center. Astronomers combined 678 exposures taken over seven hours to create this composite.

第二张图像聚焦室女座星系团特写，这个包含数千个星系的系统虽被研究了数百年，但鲁宾望远镜首次以极致细节呈现了整个星系团及其周边天体。完整广角图像（详见上方视频）展示了约1000万个星系，这仅占鲁宾望远镜终身观测目标200亿星系的0.5%，其数据将助力破解暗物质和太阳系潜在第九行星等谜题。

The second image provides an unprecedented close-up of the Virgo Cluster. While this system of thousands of galaxies has been studied for centuries, Rubin's observations reveal the entire cluster and surrounding galaxies in extraordinary detail. The full wide-angle view (see video above) displays approximately 10 million galaxies—just 0.5% of the 20 billion galaxies the telescope will ultimately observe, with data expected to illuminate mysteries like dark matter and the potential existence of a ninth planet in our solar system.

科研团队开发的"天空观测者"公共平台，允许用户探索这些超高分辨率图像，通过平移和缩放功能观测恒星与星系细节。这项为期十年的"时空遗产巡天"计划将于今年晚些时候正式启动。

The research team has developed the publicly accessible "Sky Viewer" platform, allowing users to explore these ultra-high-resolution images with pan and zoom functionality to examine stellar and galactic details. The decade-long Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) program will officially commence later this year.

Vera C. Rubin天文台公布了首批令人惊叹的图像