Cosmic Quest Begins: Japan Powers Rubin Observatory's Ten-Year Universe Survey

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory has officially kicked off its ambitious ten-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) from Chile, embarking on a mission dubbed the 'greatest cosmic movie ever made'. This groundbreaking project, set to revolutionize our understanding of the universe, is significantly boosted by key contributions from Japanese researchers and engineers whose expertise is vital to its success. Their involvement ensures the world's largest digital camera begins its unprecedented scan of the southern sky. This massive undertaking by the Simonyi Survey Telescope and its 3.2-gigapixel LSST Camera will map billions of stars and galaxies, constantly scanning for cosmic events like supernovae and providing crucial data to unravel mysteries such as dark energy and dark matter. Japanese institutions, particularly the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, bring invaluable software and operational knowledge from their work with the Subaru Telescope's Hyper Suprime-Cam, ensuring seamless data processing and analysis. The synergy between Rubin's wide-area imaging and Subaru's detailed spectroscopic follow-ups promises a powerful two-pronged approach to astronomical discovery. With the LSST now actively gathering approximately ten terabytes of data and generating millions of alerts each night, the scientific community eagerly awaits the upcoming Data Preview 2 (DP2) this summer, followed by the first major Data Release (DR1) in two years. This vast, publicly accessible dataset is expected to lead to unprecedented insights, from cataloging solar system objects to charting the universe's evolution and potentially unveiling entirely new cosmic phenomena.