Astronomers usually look to the skies, but on Monday, June 23, the community’s attention was focused on Washington, D.C., as scientists from the Vera K. Rubin Observatory unveiled the telescope’s first images. Many have waited more than 20 years to see Rubin in action, and its first results did not disappoint.
Rubin, a joint initiative of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science, recently completed its first 10 hours of test observations. During this short period, the observatory produced dazzling images and discovered more than 2,000 previously unknown asteroids, including seven asteroids approaching Earth. None of them pose a threat to our planet, but with this wealth of new data, the observatory has already proven to be a game-changer for asteroid hunters working to protect the planet. By conducting unprecedentedly fast and detailed surveys of the entire southern sky, Rubin will allow scientists to find and track more space rocks than ever before.
“When this camera system was being developed, we all knew the results would be spectacular, but they have exceeded all of our expectations,” Richard Binzel, a professor of planetary science at MIT and inventor of the Turin Scale, a tool for classifying potential impact events with Earth, told Gizmodo.
The data on these 2,000 new asteroids came directly to the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center (MPC), a globally recognized organization responsible for cataloging and disseminating data on asteroids, comets, and other small celestial bodies. It plays an important role in the early detection and monitoring of asteroids that threaten the Earth. The MPC has been preparing for the Rubin data stream for years, ramping up its software to handle the huge number of observations. When the first data stream officially arrived on Monday, it was “nerve-wracking and exciting at the same time,” Matthew Payne, MPC director, told Gizmodo.
“It was just the first step in what was to come. In a few months, Rubin will launch the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), a ten-year, nearly continuous survey of the southern sky. This will create an ultra-wide, ultra-high resolution time record of the Universe. According to Payne, in terms of asteroids, this means that MPC will receive about 250 million observations per year from LSST. “For us, this dramatically changes the total amount of data we get, because right now we’re getting somewhere between 50 and 60 million a year,” he said.
How does Rubin do it?
Rubin’s amazing capabilities stem from its superior instruments. Equipped with a unique three-mirror telescope and the largest digital camera ever built, this observatory can survey the entire sky while detecting very faint objects such as asteroids. According to Payne, this fills a key gap between existing technologies.
When hunting for space rocks, “you need to go as deep as you can,” Peter Veres, an astrophysicist at MPC, told Gizmodo. “That’s what LSST is doing, and none of the planetary defense-focused survey telescopes in the world are doing that.” During this 10-year study, Ruby will observe space on an automated schedule using the 27.6-foot (8.4-meter) Simonyi Survey Telescope. Each 30-second exposure will cover an area approximately 45 times the size of the full Moon. LSST’s huge camera will then capture wide-angle images and stitch them together to create a complete picture of the southern sky every three nights. The combination of Rubin’s huge field of view, short exposure times, and ability to scan the sky quickly will lead to an avalanche of asteroid discoveries, Veres explained.
In 2005, Congress directed NASA to develop a near-Earth object (NEO) exploration program to detect, track, catalog, and describe the physical characteristics of all near-Earth asteroids and comets with a diameter of at least 328 feet (100 meters). According to Payne, if one of these objects were to crash into our planet, it would cause massive destruction that would wipe out life on a continent-wide scale. The goal was to find 90% of them by 2020, but current estimates show that NASA has only found about 40%, he explained. LSST could help NASA accelerate the pace. “It’s just going to revolutionize the way we understand this whole set of things,” says Payne.
Binzel agrees. “These objects exist whether we see them or not,” he says. “Now we will see them and be able to determine that most of them – if not all of them – will pass safely by Earth in the coming decades. But the best news is that if an object already has our name on it, we’ll be able to find it likely many, many years – if not decades – before it gets close to Earth.”
Theoretically, this would give NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDOC) time to launch an asteroid intercept mission. PDOC is still developing this capability, but in 2022, it launched the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, which sent a spacecraft on a 10-month journey to collide with the asteroid satellite Dimorphos. The collision successfully changed Dimorphos’ orbital trajectory, demonstrating NASA’s ability to deflect a large asteroid away from Earth given enough time.
NASA is not infected?
Given Rubin’s obvious potential to revolutionize planetary defense—and the global attention he has garnered—one would expect NASA to sing his praises. But that hasn’t happened. The agency has been strangely silent about the observatory’s launch—and, in fact, seems to be ignoring Rubin’s early discoveries altogether.
“It’s the warp drive version of asteroid search,” Keith Cowing, an astrobiologist and former NASA employee who is now the editor of NASA Watch, told Gizmodo. “You would think that the planetary defense people would be at the forefront of welcoming it, saying, ‘Send me the data!’”
NASA has not shared any public information about Monday’s event or promoted the observatory’s findings. When Gizmodo reached out for comment on Rubin’s contributions to planetary science and defense, NASA declined to comment, referring instead to the observatory itself.
On Tuesday, June 24, the agency’s Office of Inspector General released a report on the implementation and management of NASA’s planetary defense strategy. The report only briefly mentions Rubin, along with NASA’s upcoming NEO Surveyor space telescope, which is designed to search for asteroids that could collide with Earth. Earth. “These new observatories are expected to find and track significantly more NEOs than current capabilities, which will likely mean a significant increase in the number of follow-up observations needed,” the report says.
NASA’s PDCO and its planetary science program will undoubtedly use the data collected by LSST, so why are they so cool about it? Cowing thinks this is a symptom of internal unrest within the agency. “NASA is nervous,” he said. “They’re getting their budgets cut from all sides—they don’t know what the final budget is going to be, but the White House wants to cut it, and they’re having to respond with what they have.”
Indeed, President Donald Trump’s 2026 budget proposal would slash NASA’s science funding by a whopping 47 percent, potentially leading to the cancellation of more than 40 missions, according to The Planetary Society. “The only good news is that no one was shot,” Cowing said.
He suspects that most NASA employees, including planetary defense personnel, are in survival mode. “What do you do when you just don’t know if you’re going to have a job, if the person next to you is going to have a job, if you’re going to have to compete for the same job?” Cowing asked. “That’s the root of it. It’s just a general malaise and fear, and people just aren’t doing the routine, professional, collaborative, collegial work that they could be doing across departments and countries.”
As NASA’s science declines, it’s unclear whether the agency will have the resources and personnel to take full advantage of the Rubin data. While PDCO currently leads the world’s planetary defense efforts, that could soon change. Binzel, however, is optimistic. “Great nations do great science,” he said. “I continue to believe that our nation will continue to do great science.
