A New Eye on the Universe Opens: The Vera C. Rubin Observatory

Each year, Northwestern University's Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA) invites a renowned speaker to campus for our Annual Public Lecture. This year's speaker is Harvard astronomer and experimental physicist Professor Christopher W. Stubbs.

This year marks the birth of an ambitious new scientific project. Based in Chile, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory will take a decade-long time-lapse movie of the entire Southern sky, using the largest digital camera ever made. First-look images were released this summer, and the project is now transitioning into full operation.

Professor Stubb's talk will describe how the unprecedented torrent of 20 terabytes per night will propel projects ranging from searches for potentially hazardous asteroids to mapping out the history of cosmic expansion. In particular, the Rubin data will provide new insights into "dark matter," the mysterious substance that comprises 90% of the mass in our own Milky Way galaxy, as well as "dark energy," which is driving the runaway expansion of the Universe. Stubbs will also describe the evolution of the project itself, and the romance of working in the high Atacama desert.

This event is generously supported by The Alumnae of Northwestern University.

If you have any questions about this event, or would like to make an accessibility request (eg. ASL interpretation), please contact Y2llcmEtZXZlbnRzIHwgbm9ydGh3ZXN0ZXJuICEgZWR1.

For those unable to make it to Evanston, the lecture will be livestreamed on CIERA's website: https://ciera.northwestern.edu/ciera-livestream/

About the Speaker

Professor Christopher W. Stubbs is an experimental physicist at Harvard University working at the interface between particle physics, cosmology and gravitation. His interests include experimental tests of the foundations of gravitational physics, searches for dark matter, characterizing the dark energy, and observational cosmology. He was a member of one of the two teams that first discovered the dark energy by using supernovae to map out the history of cosmic expansion. Stubbs is deeply engaged in helping give birth to the Rubin Observatory, having spent much of the 2024-2025 academic year on sabbatical in Chile. He served in scientific management roles during the construction of the camera, is the architect of the flux calibration system, and is a member of the Rubin Project Science Team, the project's most senior technical management group. He founded the APOLLO collaboration that is using lunar laser ranging and the Earth-Moon-Sun system to probe for novel gravitational effects that may result from physics beyond the standard model.

About CIERA

CIERA promotes research and education in astrophysics through support of independent postdoctoral fellows, advanced graduate and undergraduate research, a vigorous visiting researchers program, and multi-faceted seminars, education, and public outreach programs. Special emphasis is given to interdisciplinary connections with computer science, applied math, statistics, electrical and mechanical engineering, planetary science, education and the arts.

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