Vera Rubin Observatory (formerly Large Synoptic Survey Telescope) is an astronomical observatory under construction in Chile. The facility will be located on Cerro Pachón in the Coquimbo Region and is operated by the National Science Foundation as part of the US National Optical Astronomy Observatory. When completed, it will be one of the largest telescopes in the world with a primary mirror diameter of 27.6 feet (8.4 meters). The Vera Rubin Observatory will allow astronomers to study dark matter and dark energy, map the distribution of galaxies in our Universe, and search for signs of life beyond our Solar System.
The Vera Rubin Observatory project was initiated in 2014 with funding from the National Science Foundation and Department of Energy. Construction began in 2019 and is expected to be completed in 2025. When operational, the telescope will have a field-of-view 100 times larger than that of the Hubble Space Telescope and will be able to survey the sky 10 times faster than any existing telescope.
The Vera Rubin Observatory is named after American astronomer Vera Cooper Rubin (1928–2016), who made groundbreaking observations that led to the discovery of dark matter.