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The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science will support Rubin Observatory in its operations phase to carry out the Legacy Survey of Space and Time. They will also provide support for scientific research with the data. During operations, NSF funding is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with NSF, and DOE funding is managed by SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), under contract by DOE. Rubin Observatory is operated by NSF NOIRLab and SLAC.

NSF is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 to promote the progress of science. NSF supports basic research and people to create knowledge that transforms the future.

The DOE Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time.

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    1. Explore
    2. How Rubin Works
    3. Rubin Numbers

    Rubin Numbers

    Explore Rubin Observatory...by the numbers!

    History

    29
    Years from concept to completion
    (1996–2025)

    10
    Years of active construction
    (2015–2025)

    Telescope & Optics

    27.6 ft / 8.4 m
    Primary mirror diameter

    37,000 lbs / 16,783 kg
    Primary mirror weight

    11 ft / 3.5 m
    Secondary mirror diameter

    ~386 US tons / ~350 metric tons
    Full telescope weight (LSST Camera included)

    Camera & Images

    6173 lbs / 2800 kg
    LSST Camera weight

    10 square degrees
    Size of images on the sky
    (about the area covered by 45 full moons)

    3200 megapixels
    Resolution of a single image

    30 seconds
    Exposure time of a single image

    ~1000
    Number of science images every night

    More than 2 million
    Number of images in the full ten-year LSST

    6
    Camera filters

    320-1050 nanometers
    Total wavelength range of the filter set
    (near-ultraviolet to infrared)

    Data

    20 terabytes (20,000 gigabytes)
    Amount of data collected each night

    60 petabytes (60,000,000 gigabytes)
    Total amount of raw image data collected in ten-year survey

    ~10 million

    Alerts per night

    Survey

    The Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) will image the entire visible sky from Cerro Pachón every few nights for ten years.

    ~100
    Visits to each sky location per year

    -72° to +12°
    Declinations covered by the main survey

    ~38 billion
    Objects detected during ten-year survey

    • 20 billion galaxies
    • 17 billion stars
    • 10 million supernovae
    • 6 million Solar System objects
    Site

    Rubin Observatory is located at the El Peñón site, on the Cerro Pachón ridge, Coquimbo region, Chile.

    30º14'40.68"S, 70º44'57.90"W
    Site coordinates

    8684 ft / 2647 m
    Site altitude

    18 in / 46 cm
    Average annual rainfall

    More than 270
    Average clear nights per year

    People

    ~435
    Rubin Builders (those who have worked on the Project for 2+ years)
    as of November 2024

    More than 30
    Countries involved in physical or software construction

    ~130
    Full-time Rubin employees
    80 in the United States / 50 in Chile

    8
    Science Collaborations

    ~2800
    Science Collaboration members
    as of November 2024

    Need more technical numbers? Find them here!