
Will the Rubin Observatory prove Einstein wrong? Neil deGrasse Tyson & Chuck Nice answer queries about the new observatory, the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), and our next big tool to uncover the universe with Zeljko Ivezic, Director of Rubin Observatory Construction.
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Neil DeGrasse Tyson
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Neil DeGrasse Tyson
So Chuck.
Chuck Nice
Yeah.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
We brought the whole Lubin Observatory for an episode.
Chuck Nice
Yes, we did.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
They fit in one chair.
Chuck Nice
The entire team. 400 people right here, right now.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Coming up on StarTalk. Welcome to StarTalk, your place in the universe where science and pop culture collide. StarTalk begins. Begins right now. This is Star Talk. Neil Degrasse Tyson, your personal astrophysicist got with me, Chuck Knight. Chuck it, baby.
Chuck Nice
Hey, what's happening, Neil?
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
All right. Yeah, well, good. Today's your birthday.
Chuck Nice
Uhoh. Oh, it is today. Yes. Yeah, it was a. A day that will live in infamy for my parents.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
And you're 29 today.
Chuck Nice
Exactly.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Forever. 29 forever. Yes. So recently we did. What's up with that? On the recent release from the Rubin Observatory.
Chuck Nice
Okay.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
That amazing swath of data that came out and we said that we gotta do more than just me reciting what I learned. Oh, let's get people from.
Chuck Nice
Let's go straight to the source.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Let's go straight to the source.
Chuck Nice
Right to the source.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
And so the person who conducted the that press conference, we've got him right here sitting right there. You'll have to correct me five times with your authentically Croatian name, Zelko. I gotta put my face in it Zelko Avisic.
Zelko Ivisic
Perfect.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Perfect. Welcome to StarTalk.
Zelko Ivisic
Thank you. Thank you for inviting Ruben team to the show.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Yes. And you flew in from uw, University of Washington in Seattle. Seattle, Washington. So thanks for coming to New York into my office here at the Hayden Planetarium.
Zelko Ivisic
That's quite some office.
Chuck Nice
It actually looks like a science hoarder lives here. Right?
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
No, I'm just the receiver of many science gifts. That's a different thing. That's a big difference. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we are talking about the lsst, right? Which in its earliest incarnation, because I was on the decadal survey that sort of made sure this went into motion. This is now back 15 years ago. Back then it was called the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope. And even then I said, no, we can't have this. And so even that got rebranded as.
Zelko Ivisic
The Vera Rubin Observatory. Yes, but then you swapped and there's still lsst.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
I know, but you swapped new words.
Zelko Ivisic
Correct. Now it's Legacy Survey of Space and Time. That's the project we will undertake during first 10 years.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
That's better. They did better there.
Chuck Nice
That's so much better. Yeah, yeah. Legacy Survey of Space and Time.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
That's. That's badass.
Chuck Nice
Yeah, that's badass. That. That sounds like it could be like part of a movie. You know what I mean? That. Yeah.
Zelko Ivisic
There is tiny problem with that though. It's very hard to translate it to some languages like Spanish or Croatian, where you talk about legacy, people think you died. Unless something in English, it's perfect.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Important there. And named after Vera Rubin, who was an astrophysicist. I knew her and she visited Princeton often when I was there. And I think we first met at Princeton during your time.
Zelko Ivisic
Thanks to Robert Lapton and Michael Strauss.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Yeah. Two key components of the astrophysics landscape. In the Princeton campus. In the Princeton campus, yes. And so she was a big observer of galaxies and tried to figure out what stars were doing within them. Discovering dark matter. She and her colleagues, Kent Ford, one.
Zelko Ivisic
Of her collaborators, they did great measurements that were very simple to interpret and very convincing that there is something fishy with gravity.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
So with this telescope and your role in this, what I have you down here, you're the director of the construction project. Oh, my gosh.
Zelko Ivisic
I still am. A few more months.
Chuck Nice
I still am.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Okay. So it was still getting refined and built and tested.
Zelko Ivisic
By and large, we are done, but now we are fine tuning the system. It's very complex system, especially the software. So we are learning how to optimize it. And then in few months in October, probably we'll be done with construction, and then we turn it on, and it's effectively a robotic telescope, robotic observatory. We are not going to think every evening, like, let me look at this, let me look at that.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
That's the old way.
Chuck Nice
It would have to.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
That's the old way in the old days. Yeah, it's. So what I think people need to appreciate, if they don't already, is that modern observations are more about the data pipeline that comes from the detector more than it is just what you're going to do with the telescope. Right, right. I mean.
Zelko Ivisic
Exactly.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
And so can anyone apply for time on this telescope, or does this telescope already have an agenda that it's going to accomplish?
Zelko Ivisic
We have a very strong agenda, and it's very simple. We want to scan the sky as quickly as we can. Basically, we can cover the sky every three, four nights. And we want to do it over and over and over relentlessly for 10 years.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Every single night?
Zelko Ivisic
Every single night, if it's clear.
Chuck Nice
So it's like my father was a printer and in the dark room, the time is the development. So is that kind of the. Cause you say it's the same sky over and over and over. I can only assume that you're layering image over image over image to get more and more light. That gives you better, better, deeper, deeper.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Oh, no, no, it can do that, but that's not the point.
Chuck Nice
Oh, get out.
Zelko Ivisic
It's one of the two points. No, Chuck is right. Chuck is right. You add many images together and you see more and more objects.
Chuck Nice
Okay, you can see deeper.
Zelko Ivisic
Humility's right, too, because we want to look what changed between these different.
Chuck Nice
More keys.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
That's right.
Chuck Nice
I gotcha.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Cause any ordinary telescope can just stack images and. And what you're really doing when you're stacking images, there's a noise level in the background, a visual noise. And every next image you stack, it tamps down the noise. But if there's a signal there, the signal gets boosted.
Chuck Nice
Nice, right?
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
It's nice. So the noise drops, the signal goes up, and the signal to noise ratio, we say goes up. And so you're going to get that regardless. But the real contribution to this landscape of data is you're making a movie of the night sky.
Chuck Nice
That's amazing. You guys are like the early days of Walt Disney.
Zelko Ivisic
But for observatories, it's a much bigger, bigger movie. We call it the Greatest Movie because it would take you about a year to look at every frame that f obtained.
Chuck Nice
Wow, you guys actually beat out Jesus for the greatest story ever told.
Zelko Ivisic
All right, I'm leaving. You guys are funny. You know astronomy.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
I can leave. Protect Chuck from himself here. Right. What fraction of of the nights do you expect to be completely clear?
Zelko Ivisic
About 300 nights per year. So not too bad. 80%. Yeah.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Wow. Not too bad. And of course, the sky shifts a little bit each night. And so in December, you're not getting the same sky you're getting in June.
Zelko Ivisic
Correct.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
How long is your movie that you will have?
Zelko Ivisic
So the movie will be 10 years long. Now, some parts of the sky. You all ever heard one that is.
Chuck Nice
A serious director's cut.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Directors, they don't leave nothing on the floor.
Zelko Ivisic
Ten years, it's going to be 60 petabytes of data. 60,000 terabytes.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Yeah.
Zelko Ivisic
It's mind boggling.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Okay, but I guess what I want to understand is for any given spot on the sky, you have continual coverage. Not for 10 years, you have it for six months.
Zelko Ivisic
Well, some parts, yeah. Some parts close to the pole, you see, you see, continuum. And some parts that are closer to the equator, we will have like five months, six months, seven months in.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
That's the point I was making. Right. So if you're near the pole, we call those circumpolar stars.
Chuck Nice
Right.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
They never rise and they never set.
Chuck Nice
Right.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Because the pole star is above the horizon and the stars just go around. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so throughout the night you get it the whole time.
Zelko Ivisic
Right. So in 10 years, we'll see each object about thousand times. And for some objects, it will be uniformly distributed over 10 years. For some there will be clumps of like six months, and then few months, no observations. And then again, a few months of observation.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Suppose something happens when you're not looking.
Zelko Ivisic
Tough luck.
Chuck Nice
I like it.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
That's the way the cookie crumbles. The right attitude.
Chuck Nice
That's right.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
No, it's very, it's very frank.
Zelko Ivisic
But you'll also catch a lot of them.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Right, right, right. So what are the, what are the high points of expectation? Well, let me say that differently. For objects very far away galaxies, if a star goes bump in the night, you'll see it. If it have a supernova or a nova. All right. But those are too far away for you to see anything moving. So there you're checking for changes in the brightness of an object, whereas much nearby, you're looking for movement of objects.
Zelko Ivisic
Exactly.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Such as asteroids.
Zelko Ivisic
Asteroids or stars in our Milky Way, they move too, but much slower. Than asteroids. So you really need to wait for 10 years to reliably see that motion of stars that go around the center of our galaxy. We are going with them. And so we can see relative motion with asteroids. You look at it and within half an hour you are definitely certain that there is motion.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
It seems to me your biggest contribution to the astronomical data sets that we currently have will be in the discovery and tracking of asteroids.
Zelko Ivisic
That's one of the four pillars that we have. So it's studying the solar system asteroids. Then the other one is studying the Milky Way stars in the Milky Way, about close to 20 billion stars, more than living people on Earth. Then we want to study cosmology. We want to look at galaxies and supernovae to see, to try to decipher. Why do we see accelerated expansion of the universe. There are basically two ways to explain it today. One is to postulate Einstein's theory of gravity is correct, which leads you to conclusion that there is some mysterious fluid called dark energy, of which we know nothing. The other possibility is that Einstein was wrong and theory of gravity is wrong, and we need to fix it. And people already proposed many different ways to fix it, but we don't know which one of these two is more correct or less wrong. And we don't know it now because we don't have data.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
I'm betting on Einstein. It's not a bad bet, just coming in blind.
Chuck Nice
I'm going to say the Vegas odds are like, you know, six to five on Einstein.
Zelko Ivisic
But.
Chuck Nice
Yeah, yeah. So let me just get a layman's perspective here. When you talk about dark energy, that is the pressure that is speeding up the expansion of the universe, what are you looking for?
Zelko Ivisic
That demonstrates that there are several ways to do it. So supernovae, of course, play a major role. They directly measure the expansion, they tell us acceleration. But then to get handle on gravity, you have to look at the effects of gravity. One of them is the formation of structure in the universe. When you look at galaxies on the sky, they are not randomly distributed, like take a handful of sand or salt throw on your table, there is not much structure. But when you look at galaxies on the sky, they have these clumps and then there are voids where there are no galaxies. We want to measure this very precisely. That's one way to do it. The other way, so called gravitational lensing, that goes back to Einstein, where light is curved because of mass. And so by looking at that curvature which distorts images of galaxies, we can tell how much hidden mass There is. And so all these together.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
So your dark matter will also curve the light even if you can't see the matter at all.
Zelko Ivisic
So you need many different probes to decouple these different influences. And so we know that in order to make the next scientific step, we need to measure about 10 billion galaxies. And you just can't do it with existing observatories. You could, but it would take forever. Thousand years. Right. We'll do it in 10 years with this new observatory.
Chuck Nice
So you're able to do that because of what you have, like a wider field of view?
Zelko Ivisic
Yeah, correct.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
You think?
Chuck Nice
Go ahead.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
How much bigger is your field of view in one snapshot? Can I say that, how much bigger your field of view than that of the Hubble telescope?
Chuck Nice
Oh, interesting.
Zelko Ivisic
It's about thousand times bigger.
Chuck Nice
Oh, my God.
Zelko Ivisic
So typical telescope sees a part of the sky that is much smaller than full moon.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Right.
Zelko Ivisic
And in our field of view, you could fit 45 times the full moon.
Chuck Nice
Oh, wow.
Zelko Ivisic
It's much larger.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
So if Hubble were to do this, they would have to sit there and take one picture here and one there and then mosaic it all together and get the big picture. And by the time that's happened, you know, we're all dead by then.
Chuck Nice
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So this is like the introduction of panoramic view on the camera phones when it first came out.
Zelko Ivisic
Exactly.
Chuck Nice
You know, everything was like. They were like, oh, man. You don't have to take a picture here, here, here, here.
Zelko Ivisic
I like the knowledge of it. With tiles in your bathroom, if you want to put new tiles.
Chuck Nice
Right.
Zelko Ivisic
You could use Roman Mosaic. Those inch by inch. It would take you a whole weekend to do it. But if you go Home Depot, you get these good American big tiles. You go, flap, flap, flap, and you're done in half an hour.
Chuck Nice
That's a great analogy.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
You need to get on to your next.
Chuck Nice
Right, right. That's funny.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
So, but I still like to think that what it's doing compared to previous images is way more than just your panorama setting on your.
Chuck Nice
On your iPhone. Just a little bit. Just a little bit more than.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Instead of taking five pictures, I take one. We're talking thousands.
Chuck Nice
Right, right.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
And so this, of course, you have this huge camera and detector.
Zelko Ivisic
That's a big, beautiful camera.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Big, big, beautiful camera.
Zelko Ivisic
3,000 megapixels.
Chuck Nice
That's 3,000. It's the biggest. The biggest camera ever. What we're trying to figure out is how it can take a picture.
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Neil DeGrasse Tyson
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This is StarTalk with Neil DeGrasse Tyson.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
So it seems to me that some of the public will be very much interested in dark matter, dark energy, because it's a big mystery and we all love mysteries. Other parts of the public might want to know more about those asteroids because we've all seen asteroid movies where an asteroid comes our way and Bruce Willis. Bruce Willis. And the odd thing is, holding aside that the movie Armageddon violated more laws of physics per minute than any other movie ever made, the scenario that an asteroid could be headed towards Earth is one that has precedent on Earth. Right. Okay.
Chuck Nice
That's a movie that actually would be a rerun. It's already happened.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
That's already happened. So in terms of, I don't wanna say national security, global security, you will have better data than any Air Force, Navy, army data could possibly accumulate on the risk factors of Earth getting hit by an asteroid. So do you have a relationship with the military on this or Bruce Willis?
Zelko Ivisic
We don't so if we had relationship, it would be with NASA, their planetary defense office. But because the nature of our data is to look at everything on the sky, these potentially hazardous asteroids will be like gravy on top of everything. We don't have to do anything special to find them.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Oh, they come in for free.
Zelko Ivisic
Because the system is so powerful. We will indeed be the most powerful machine for finding new asteroids in general and potentially hazardous asteroids in particular.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
What are you saying the men in black haven't shown up? Yeah, exactly. They're gonna show up.
Chuck Nice
That's funny.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
So I caught you on that press conference just a few weeks ago and brilliantly executed and very excited.
Zelko Ivisic
I was just pizza delivery guy at the end of a great supply chain. We had fantastic team.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Yes.
Zelko Ivisic
That produced all those great images and.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Videos and they had their day in the sun there or day in the media, which is good and important of course, because they. You work most of your life.
Zelko Ivisic
It was an awesome day. After 20 years of working hard on this to see thousands of newspapers and thousands of TV stations pick up our images.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
And that's an authentic interest. They were not bribed to attend your press conference.
Zelko Ivisic
Exactly.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
So what intrigued me most about all the data? Because I've seen pretty pictures of nebulae before and you zoomed in. You zoom in better than anybody else. Okay, but. Excuse me after, was it 10 hours? There's thousands of previously undocumented asteroids showing up in your data. Thousands of them.
Chuck Nice
Thousands?
Zelko Ivisic
We discovered more than 2,000 in just a few nights.
Chuck Nice
Wait, wait. In a few nights of 2000 you.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Identified all these asteroids, none of which are in any catalog.
Chuck Nice
Wow.
Zelko Ivisic
Correct.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
That's out of control.
Zelko Ivisic
There are about a million known asteroids now. And in first few years with LSST, we'll discover 5 million more. So we'll increase the number of asteroids by factor of 5 compared to last 200 years of people discovering asteroids.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Right.
Zelko Ivisic
That's technology. That's rapid development of technology.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
It's not because we're smarter.
Zelko Ivisic
It's because we'd love to say we are so much smarter than our forefathers, but it's because of technology.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Yeah. The first asteroid, you know when the first asteroid was discovered?
Chuck Nice
No.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
1801, I think it was.
Chuck Nice
Wow, that's that recently. Recently, yes.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Well, after Galileo and Newton.
Chuck Nice
Yeah.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Oh, yeah.
Chuck Nice
All those guys looking up before then.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
You would have thought had no idea. Right?
Chuck Nice
Look at that.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Yeah, yeah. So. So is there people tasked especially for the asteroids?
Zelko Ivisic
We do have group that keeps an eye on it, but it's all done by software.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Got it.
Zelko Ivisic
Of course. Automated.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
So what role does AI play in this?
Zelko Ivisic
To assess whether what we discover actually makes sense. So it's all done automatically. AI comes in many places in our. In our observatory. From running the observatory to decide where on the sky you're going to look at, to interpretation of images, classification of objects and such.
Chuck Nice
Probably one of the best things AI does, period, is pattern recognition. So I would assume that all these changes that you're looking for, that's going to be a big part of what the AI does.
Zelko Ivisic
Absolutely. There will be so many objects that, as I said, billions more than living people on Earth. So you really need then to be able to notice one tiny change among billions of them. And that's where AI comes in. We couldn't do that without AI okay.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
So it's noticing a change now. Do you anticipate discovering a kind of object that has no known precedent?
Zelko Ivisic
Every project prior to us, every project that was breaking technological barriers, that was at the cutting edge, every project discovered something they did not expect. In the history of science, of astronomy and science in general.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Yes. Yes.
Zelko Ivisic
So we think we will discover something super exciting. But I can't tell you what we call it. Unknown. Unknown. But our power to look at the sky, to see what's changing on the sky, power to measure things more precisely than anything else before, that is what gives us confidence we'll find something super cool.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
So more precisely, referring to the resolution of the.
Zelko Ivisic
Its resolution, its sensitivity, the amount of data, relentless scanning of the night after every few nights of the sky after every few nights. That's what gives us confidence.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
I don't mean to value. Judge what you're putting together there, but for me, the least interesting objects would be the variable stars, because we've had variable stars.
Chuck Nice
Tell me again what a variable star is.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
It varies in its brightness.
Chuck Nice
Ah, gotcha.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
That's how we roll in astral.
Chuck Nice
Yeah, you just. What it is you give it. Where I am is what you call me.
Zelko Ivisic
There is American association of Variable Star Observers who don't like you right now. They don't like you right now. Okay.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
It'll feed them their breakfast, lunch, and dinner, like forever.
Chuck Nice
Now.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
It's just that most stars vary at some level, you're gonna find variations.
Zelko Ivisic
Even the sun varies.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Yes, exactly. So at some level, every star is variable. And so if every star is variable.
Chuck Nice
Then no star is actually variable.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Variability is not a design, not a big deal. If we all vary, then it's like if everybody who's special, if everybody's special, then nobody's special. So what kind of stars would be especially interesting in the variable star category?
Zelko Ivisic
I think interesting events are when there is some microlensing with planets. Then we can see that star has a planet. So we'll get some of those. But we'll have hundreds of millions of variable stars because we'll have 20 billion stars overall. So it's like totally new ball game. We are changing it from millions to hundreds of millions. It's like someone increased your salary by factor of 100. Would you live differently?
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Yeah, I would probably live differently, yeah.
Chuck Nice
So is there any. Because you bought a Hubble just a minute ago, I mean, a little while ago. So when we look at the detail that Hubble came out with, are there any areas that you might find where you'll just. Just put it over to them? Like, hey, you should look at this. Or does that not make a difference?
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Are there telescopes that would be interested in follow up measurements?
Zelko Ivisic
Absolutely.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
With. With whatever is their specialty, which could be different from your telescope specialty?
Zelko Ivisic
Absolutely.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
In wavelength or this. Because Chuck was trying to inquire about that. Yeah.
Zelko Ivisic
Fun fact. When we get a new image in Chile with this observatory, it's shipped to California for processing within few seconds, within 60 seconds, that image will be compared by computers to all the previous images we obtained from that part of the sky. Everything that is new in that image, it changed in motion, it changed in brightness. We will report to everyone in the world who is interested within 60 seconds. And every single telescope in the world, should they wish so can go and do follow up.
Chuck Nice
Yo, that is gangster.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
In my day, in my day, Monday, we had to actually look through a piece of glass. It had to be nighttime. No, in my day, if someone discovers something, we're very organized, my people, we got each other's back. If someone discovers something at a telescope, back in the day, they'd send out a telegram. And there is this special telegram service just for us, just for you guys. Okay. And would show up in the observer. And before you went observing that night, you check to see is there a star that just blew up? Is there something that just moved? Is something. And if it can fit into your program, you would part your own observing program to get data on that object. And then you send it back to them.
Chuck Nice
Wow, that's.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
And you're observing the object, you're monitoring the object. But then the sun rises.
Zelko Ivisic
Hello.
Chuck Nice
For you, not for that guy over there.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Not for six hours over in time Zone. And they can pick up the observation through telegrams. So you should be able to do that, right?
Zelko Ivisic
Absolutely. So Hawaii is the first place with telescopes that comes on after Chile. Then you go to Asia, Then you go Europe, Africa. You come back to Chile. So we have the sun never sets in Ruby Universe.
Chuck Nice
Oh, that's very cool. That's very cool. Now, do you guys also use telegraph?
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
But he did use the word. He said it ships to California.
Chuck Nice
Right, Ship.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
I'm thinking of, you know, Spanish galleons, but.
Chuck Nice
Good evening, Mr. And Mrs. America and all the astrophysicists will see Dateline. We have a new image.
Zelko Ivisic
We now have fiber optical cables going from South America to us. Two redundant cables. But when SDSs, previous big astronomical survey.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey.
Zelko Ivisic
I remember going with a doof bag full of DLT tapes from New Mexico to Princeton, carrying this data.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Duffel bag.
Zelko Ivisic
Duffel bag. What did I say?
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
You said doof bag.
Zelko Ivisic
Oh, duffel bag.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Duffel bag could be heard differently.
Chuck Nice
A doof bag is a bag full of stupid people.
Zelko Ivisic
Cut it out.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
So it would be physically carried, correct? Yeah. I remembered we would compare back when bandwidth was narrow and speeds were low baud rate. We had to calculate. Do I send this through over the computer? This is early 90s, late 80s. Or do I put it on a disk and send it by FedEx? So there's the bandwidth of FedEx.
Chuck Nice
Wow. And now it travels at the speed of light.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Close.
Chuck Nice
Well, yeah, it's fiber optic. I mean, Verizon says it's the speed of light.
Zelko Ivisic
Well, you have to divide by the index of refraction of the glass.
Chuck Nice
That's right. I understand. Because it slows down light. It's a medium that slows down light itself.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Yeah, I got you. Yeah, I remember that. We did a thing on that one. Yeah, I think we did a little.
Chuck Nice
We did a whole thing on it. All the different mediums through which light actually slows down.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
But technically, light always goes at the speed of light. Right? Because it's light. It's light.
Chuck Nice
Exactly. You know how fast you were going there, sir? I'm light. I was going.
Zelko Ivisic
Me.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
So you know that Photon checks into a hotel.
Chuck Nice
Okay.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
And the bellhop says, do you have any luggage? Photon says, no, I'm traveling light. We have queries for this episode.
Chuck Nice
Oh, I forgot. This was so good. I forgot we asked.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Forget. I didn't forget. This is a cosmic queries for the Ruben telescope. Get them ready with the man himself.
Chuck Nice
I said, get them ready.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Yeah. So we have a fan base, and a subset of the fan base actually pays monthly to participate in Ways they have little extra benefits. One of them is they get to ask questions at the entry level. You got questions here?
Chuck Nice
I do. I have them ready to go. Give me a few. All right, let's start off with Hugo Dart who says hello, doctors Tyson and Ibizich and Lord.
Zelko Ivisic
Nice.
Chuck Nice
This is Hugo Dart from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with my 7 year old daughter Olivia, who is a big fan of Star Talk.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
That means she's asking all the questions. Yeah, not him.
Chuck Nice
Right.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Here is grown ups try to sound so smart. But it's their kids who actually know the deal.
Chuck Nice
Right here is our question. Public access and open data are key principles of the Rubin Observatory. How do you envision citizen scientists, educators and students using this data? And what tools are being given to develop and support them?
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
We all heard or read that all the data will be made available to people essentially instantly so everyone can participate in this. So what are the plans for that? And I like that. What tools? Cause you can't just say, here's the data, you know, they have to know how to get into the data. Is there a tandem set of tools to support the citizen?
Zelko Ivisic
Rubin Observatory and LSST are not just for scientists. They are for everyone. And we have a large suite of tools that you can use to get to our data. A couple of weeks ago you could see that thing called Sky Viewer that allows you to zoom in, zoom out, enjoy the night sky. But we'll have many other tools on top of that. And Hugo is asking, wait a minute.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Sir, you're telling me people will no longer have to look up because they can see the sky looking down on their iPad because you brought the sky down here. Now no one's going to look up because of you.
Chuck Nice
Yeah, but you can't see what you can see down there, up there.
Zelko Ivisic
You can always look up. You can take a laptop or iPad, you look up.
Chuck Nice
Right, that's great.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
You got me there. Okay, so you have a suite of tools. And where do we find those tools?
Zelko Ivisic
You go to rubinobservatory.org and all the links there. Actually, there is already ongoing citizen science project with comets. My colleague Colleen Orion Chandler from University of Washington just started a few days ago. They already have hundreds of thousands of images processed by human eyes. I forget how many thousand of people in the first week of that project are already enjoying Rubin data.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
So these are people looking for comets.
Zelko Ivisic
They're looking at things that move. And the question is, does it look wider than star? Do you see any evidence that it's a comet and not an Asteroid with fuzz. With fuzz.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Right, right. Because an asteroid is just a dot of light on your frame. And stars are dots of light on those same photos. So when Herschel saw them, he said, this kind of looks like a star, but it's not because it's really nearby and it's moving. So it's star like asteroid. Nice asteroid. That's where we get that name. But if you have AI finding everything, how can a human being actually participate in this?
Zelko Ivisic
With AI, you need training sample. And so training sample has to be as similar as possible to what you're actually doing. And we are just starting now our project. So now we are getting people to help us make a training sample. And then we will use training sample to train AI that will do it automatically.
Chuck Nice
Interesting.
Zelko Ivisic
So these people are helping a lot of. To deploy AI later.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
And, you know, he talked about looking for fuzz so you can find the comet. The inverse of that happened. Fascinating research paper by William Herschel.
Chuck Nice
William Herschel.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Okay. He's looking at the night sky and he sees an object move. Okay.
Chuck Nice
Right.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
And he says, must be a comet before asteroids were discovered. Right. It must be a comet. He keeps watching it, and there's no fuzz on the comet. And he says, this is an odd comet. And he published a paper, an account of a peculiar comet. He said, it refuses to show fuzz.
Chuck Nice
Right.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
The man discovered planet Uranus.
Chuck Nice
Wow.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
But he was in denial. Cause no one had discovered a planet before.
Chuck Nice
Right?
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
So why would he think he's discovering a planet when everyone has discovered comets before? We had comets forever. Okay? So that's a funny inverse problem here, where there was no fuzz, therefore it was a planet. Are you gonna be able to find Planet nine if it's out there?
Zelko Ivisic
Do you think, if anyone will find it, it will be Rubin Observatory?
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Right. Nine's getting cocky.
Zelko Ivisic
If it exists and if it's in the right part of the sky, and if it's large enough, we have the best chance of discovering it.
Chuck Nice
Right.
Zelko Ivisic
But there's no guarantee we will.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
That's. That's badass.
Chuck Nice
That is pretty cool.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
That's like. Yeah, if it's out there. If it's out there, no one else will get it before we will.
Chuck Nice
The answers are out there, Scully.
Zelko Ivisic
There are many previous projects that looked hard, right? So they said that their sensitivity level. They didn't find anything. And now we are pushing the sensitivity. So it's. I'm not being cocky. I'm just stating the fact.
Chuck Nice
It's not cocky when you're Right.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Exactly. Yeah. I'm not being cocky if we all know that I can kick your ass. That's just the facts of the situation. So remind me, what is the latitude of this observatory?
Zelko Ivisic
Minus 30.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Minus 30. So you can go circumpolar to the South Pole, but you'll be missing a cap in the sky in the north.
Zelko Ivisic
We will.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
And what fraction of the total sky will you never be able to observe?
Zelko Ivisic
Never ever. About one quarter. But our highest quality map of the sky and movie of the sky will be for half the sky.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Half the sky. Okay. So this calls for a twin of your observatory in the north.
Chuck Nice
There you go.
Zelko Ivisic
It would be hard to justify it in scientific terms because we'll get most of science done with just half the sky because of statistical effects and so on. But it would be fantastic to have another one in the north. I agree.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Unless the asteroid is coming from the north. Then he don't miss that one.
Chuck Nice
Yeah. I mean, yeah.
Zelko Ivisic
I mean I'd like to have eight like four north, four south. And then at different longitudes there's continual. Exactly.
Chuck Nice
Wow. That's.
Zelko Ivisic
Then no killer asteroid would escape. We catch them all.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Catch them all.
Zelko Ivisic
Unless they're peculiar. Comes from the direction of the sun. But there is. There is medicine for that too.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Plus as we move around the sun, it's. You can't always stay behind the sun unless it's being intentionally hidden there.
Chuck Nice
Well, that's aliens at that point.
Zelko Ivisic
There are some interesting asteroids that go around the sun in orbits similar to Earth's orbit. Takes almost a year for them. About a year to go around. But they're on the other side of the sun. So for us to see them, they're basically hiding behind the sun. So sometimes takes 20, 30 years for them to move enough for us to detect them.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
And we just learned, and we did a little explainer on it, how Venus can hide asteroids in two Lagrange points that orbit with Venus. But Venus is always near the sun. Venus is never the opposite direction because it's interior to us.
Chuck Nice
Right.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
So if it's got asteroids that are hidden there, we will never see them because they're lost in the sun's glare. And if they get like nudged, they pop out of their orbit. They're a risk factor.
Chuck Nice
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
I don't want any asteroid coming to us without your warning first.
Zelko Ivisic
We'll do. Sir.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
That's. That's.
Chuck Nice
Yeah.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
This is my finger.
Chuck Nice
Not that it will make much of a difference. We can't even pay for a warning system for floods.
Zelko Ivisic
I'M not going there.
Chuck Nice
This is James Liggett and he says, hi, y'. All, this is Jan. Jim Liggett from Midland, Texas Midland, Odessa.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
That's a. That's a twin city there.
Chuck Nice
So the place where the wounded warriors parade got hit by a train. I don't know what that means, but he says, what wavelengths of light does the telescope see and what is the reason for that choice?
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Good question. Let's start with just human vision. Can you see all the wavelengths that the human eye can see?
Zelko Ivisic
Yes, we can. So let's. From 0.4 to 0.7 microns, we see everything.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Wavelength?
Zelko Ivisic
Yeah, eyes can see, but we see more. A little bit more.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Okay, so now you got that. So now keep going.
Zelko Ivisic
Now you go towards shorter wavelengths, towards ultraviolet. And there just on the other side of violet, so it's cut off by the atmosphere. And so we see everything you can if you're on the ground. And then on the other side towards near infrared, we go all the way to the sensitivity of silicon, roughly 1.1 micron.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
The CCD chip, its sensitivity drops off after a certain wavelength, but you got it right up to that.
Zelko Ivisic
Exactly. So we are doing as well as we can from the ground, unless we use different detectors. If you want to go into shorter wavelengths than uv, you have to launch telescope above the atmosphere.
Chuck Nice
Right.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
So why don't we put Vera Rubin telescope in space?
Zelko Ivisic
There are two basic reasons. Our data throughput is so large that we couldn't downlink and it would be very, very expensive.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Right. Well, so I mean, I said that almost jokingly, but one can imagine a future where you would build Rubin telescope on the moon.
Zelko Ivisic
You could.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
And then it's still sort of. It's got a ground.
Chuck Nice
Right? It's got a ground based structure. Yeah, yeah.
Zelko Ivisic
It's certainly technologically possible. It's all about funding for it and justification.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Oh, is that what it's only about funding? Is that all?
Chuck Nice
Well, there you have it.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Yep.
Chuck Nice
It'll never happen.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
So what other telescope in the world, in another country comes close to Rubin?
Zelko Ivisic
The closest one. So you need to have large telescope, large field of view and camera to support it. So the one that is the closest is Japanese Subaru telescope with Hyper Suprime camera on it. And the telescope is sighted in Hawaii.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Okay. And that telescope's been around a few decades, if I remember correctly.
Zelko Ivisic
So they refurbished with a new camera. And so if they spend all their time using that camera to scan the sky, so they would be about at one tenth of our speed, we about 10 times faster than them, but they are not using all the time for that program. So we have close to 100 times faster than our competition.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Okay. So one can say that the United States leads the world right now in this way. And so going in the future, it's a matter of, do we want to keep leading the world? Because we have a lot of innovative ideas that are on the docket. This is not the only great idea telescope anybody's ever had. Right. And so it'd be interesting to see going forward how we value our leadership in these areas in the United States. And allow me to say that from Beginning in the 20th century, the United States has prioritized leading the world in astrophysical observations of the universe. We've had biggest telescopes, like, forever, right?
Zelko Ivisic
Correct.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Yeah. And so you make the biggest telescope, you get all the data, and then you say, okay, now we have a technology that can make an even bigger telescope. And bigger is better. It's just how well it makes sense because you could get more light and more data. That's how that goes.
Chuck Nice
Maybe that's the way we can get funding. Just keep telling people that it's the biggest.
Zelko Ivisic
I do believe that today we need more coordination between different nations around the globe because these instruments are becoming more and more expensive.
Chuck Nice
Right.
Zelko Ivisic
So the. The plain competition where you make two of the same thing and try to compete them, that makes no sense.
Chuck Nice
So why not allow people to concentrate on different areas, different technological advances, and then share the information?
Zelko Ivisic
Exactly.
Chuck Nice
Yeah.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
And then everybody does what they do best and you make the one amalgam from it.
Chuck Nice
Right, yeah, that makes sense.
Zelko Ivisic
And our project shows nicely where United States is very strong, that software, that's new algorithms, that's this new technology here. The reason why Google and Facebook and Amazon is in the States is this huge base of people who are great at software historically and today. And our project was enabled by this great expertise in software domain in computer science in United States. And that's what we don't want to fall behind.
Chuck Nice
Absolutely.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
I have a book here called Cosmic Discovery written by Martin Harwit. Okay. It came out 45 years ago, but he made the point, as a follow on to that a few years later, he made the point that we can dream up whatever we want in the universe, but at the end of the day, the technology that enables it is what creates the leaps and bounds in our discoveries.
Chuck Nice
Absolutely.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Every right. Up and down, up and down the stack. Go for it. Give me another one.
Chuck Nice
You just gave the next question. This is Yogesh Jug, who says, hey, quick question. We use telescopes to observe the universe, but are they enough? What else do we need to truly monitor the cosmos? And have we even identified everything required to do that? So are telescopes the only game in town? Is that all we really have if we want to look out into the universe? Or are there other things that we might be able to utilize to augment or add to that?
Zelko Ivisic
As Neil already pointed out, we don't see the whole sky.
Chuck Nice
Right.
Zelko Ivisic
And we see it only during night, not during the day. So it would be great to have at least two, maybe eight similar observatories then there are different wavelengths. And so you want to get some instruments above the ground. That's for example, another fantastic US Project Nancy Grace telescope, which will be fantastic also. Huge field of view above the atmosphere, sensitive to different wavelengths, longer infrared wavelengths that will give you different kind of information about the universe than we can get from the ground with Rubin. So together these two will be a great complementary missions and kind of.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Today we're no longer limited to thinking only about electromagnetic energy light because we have the gravitational Wave Observatory. How about we have neutrino, both of these.
Zelko Ivisic
We are going to try to get electromagnetic counterparts if they trigger us. We do. Have you asked earlier are we always going to just do the same thing over and over? It's true at the 98% level, but we reserve about 2% of observing time to interrupt what we are doing. If there is a great trigger coming from ligo or from IceCube Observatory.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
IceCube is the neutrino observatory embedded in Antarctica.
Zelko Ivisic
So a few times a year they'll tell us something interesting happened. New gravitational wave source. Go and find what is the counterpart.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
And you could easily donate or forfeit. What's the. You can easily allocate a short amount of time to get some good data and then you go back to your continued movie. Yeah, cool. Again, that's more the more that we got each other's back.
Chuck Nice
Yeah.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
On this. Yeah. Very, very good.
Chuck Nice
Now the only people more collaborative than scientists are rappers.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
So if you do on my album, I got a album coming out. So. So just let me just emphasize what you just said so casually. We make an observation in any one of these domains that so a gravitational waves, neutrinos and who knows what else might come down the pipe. These would be coming from extraordinary phenomena in the universe, colliding pulsars, whatever. And not all of the data arrive at Earth at exactly the same moment. So what gets here first? Is it the gravitational waves that's moving at the speed of light.
Zelko Ivisic
Right?
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Neutrinos and then neutrinos come a little.
Zelko Ivisic
Later, a little bit later.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Just a little bit later.
Zelko Ivisic
Teeny tiny. Then electromagnetic part photons, they could come much later because there is some time is needed for this energy to get through the local environment to produce the emission that we would see.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Okay, so you can just watch that happen and now everybody's got a piece of the action and you bring it together and we can then describe this animal that is an elephant. That would otherwise be unthinkable.
Zelko Ivisic
The electromagnetic part lasts longer. So even if you don't catch it at the beginning, you can still get very useful data that will inform you me about what's going on.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Right? So it's not just a fuzzy tail and toenails and tusks and a trunk. Somebody can know that we're looking at an elephant.
Chuck Nice
That's wild.
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Chuck Nice
This is Holly Sweet. That's a great name.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
That's a great name. Okay, good.
Chuck Nice
Hello, Dr. Tyson, Dr. Ibizich and Lord. Nice. I was wondering during the building process when the telescope is installed in the observatory Is up and running. How do you keep everything clean and pristine to prevent foreign objects from interfering with your research? Thank you, Holly Sweet from Mount Holly, North Carolina. All right, all right.
Zelko Ivisic
So it took some effort. It's a great question. It took some effort to clean the observatory after construction.
Chuck Nice
Right.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
So that's true for any construction site. There's construction dust and the like, but.
Zelko Ivisic
Here it's especially sensitive. And what we care about the most is our mirror, which is very sensitive. And indeed, even though we are trying to protect the dome where the mirror is, Every few years, we will need to re coat the mirror with a thin layer of silver to make it shiny again. It loses its shininess.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Is it a solid mirror or segments?
Zelko Ivisic
It's a solid mirror.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Solid mirror. And how. What's the diameter?
Zelko Ivisic
8.4 meters is the outer diameter. It's actually two mirrors in one. It's like one disc that has two optical figures. The outer one is the primary mirror. And then Inside the inner 5.4 meters is a different optical figure that acts as tertiary mirror.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Oh, my gosh.
Zelko Ivisic
It's a very unique optical design that allows us to have very large field of view without very strong distortions.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Right.
Zelko Ivisic
Wow.
Chuck Nice
So, Holly, the answer is ShamWow. That's what they use to clean things.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Is there a spider mount for a secondary?
Zelko Ivisic
Correct, There is.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Okay, so you will get diffraction spikes.
Zelko Ivisic
We will.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Okay. Because you know the pictures that show the spikes.
Chuck Nice
Right.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
That. Because it's an. It's an artifact of the detector, of the system.
Chuck Nice
Yeah. It's not the actual star going, right?
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Yeah, yeah. It's not an actual thing.
Chuck Nice
Right. Kind of like lens flare.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Chuck Nice
This is Louis Gabriel Thibault. And he says. Or tybal. He says. Dr. Tyson. Lord. Nice. And Dr. Ivazic. This is Louis Gabriel Tebow. Did you get it right, Chuck? Yeah, I did.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
How about that, Louie?
Chuck Nice
He actually said that. Okay, People, rude people.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
So people get. People don't get no respect for me, man.
Chuck Nice
He says from Quebec. Quebec, Canada, straight north of New York. What was the construction risk that came closest to impacting this project, and what did you do to avoid it? So were there any risk factors that you almost realized that could have placed the project in jeopardy or at least delayed it?
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
And I'm trying to picture this. How do you move an 8 meter mirror into place? What road do you travel that on? Or is it carried vertically? And if it's vertically, what happens if wind comes? Or did you build the mirror on location?
Zelko Ivisic
These are all fantastic questions we had Many risks. Fortunately, we either mitigated them or they didn't materialize. We carried mirror in horizontal position. There is a tunnel when you go up the summit where the observatory is from La Serena in Chile. You take a road for an hour, public road. Then you go to AURA compound. AURA is association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, which is an association of about 50 universities and other institutions.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
And it's funded by the National Science Foundation.
Zelko Ivisic
Yes, and NASA too. It's federal funding from us. And the tunnel is just a couple of inches wider than the mirror. So it took hours to go through.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
A few hundred yards to inch through the tunnel.
Chuck Nice
Man, I would hate to be the dude driving that truck. I do not want that.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Where's the top part? Where's the top half of the mirror? Well, we left it at the.
Chuck Nice
Oh, my gosh.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Wow.
Chuck Nice
That poor person. Whoever they were, they had to be dying.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
What would you have done if it was not wide enough?
Zelko Ivisic
Probably hire a helicopter and just take it up there. But it's much riskier operation. Much more expensive operation.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Plus, helicopters are less good at high elevation.
Chuck Nice
Yes.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Because they need lift.
Chuck Nice
They don't have as much stuff to push against.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Right, right. You need like turbo helicopters.
Chuck Nice
Oh, man.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Oh, cool.
Chuck Nice
Oh, man. I'm just. I'm still feeling bad for that driver. Just. Just waiting to hear the sound. Just like.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Oh. Plus, nowadays, mirrors are pretty thin. Right. What's the thickness of this mirror?
Zelko Ivisic
Depends what you count. But if you look at the Support 2, then it's maybe foot and a half something.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Oh, even that thick. Okay, so it's not a. It's not a flexible mirror. You're not.
Zelko Ivisic
It is flexible, but it's got a honeycomb structure. And then we have 150, I think six pistons underneath.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
That's what I was wondering that.
Zelko Ivisic
That's called the active optic system. That deformed the mirror. The mirror gets deformed by gravity as you point to different parts of the sky. And then these pistons again make a perfect figure to get the sharpest possible image.
Chuck Nice
Wow, that is really.
Zelko Ivisic
And it does it like 10 times per second. It's like crazy. You look at the image, you calculate where you need to push it, pull it, and you do it ten times per second.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
So this fixes the gravitational distortion of the glass. But do you also have adaptive optics?
Zelko Ivisic
We don't. Because you can't have such a large field of view. And adaptive optics. You can make adaptive optics work over maybe a few centimeters field of view, but not like two feet apart.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Okay. So the Keck telescope will still have value to an observation you might make. With its adaptive optics, it might be able to see more detail than.
Zelko Ivisic
Absolutely. It could be. Great follow up instruments.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Great follow up. Good. Okay.
Chuck Nice
Wow.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
All right, what else you got?
Chuck Nice
Great questions.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Time for a couple more.
Chuck Nice
Stephen Schultz, who says hello from the birthplace of aviation. Stephen Schultz here.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Wait, birthplace of aviation.
Chuck Nice
That would have to be Kitty Hawk.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Yeah, I guess so. Or North Carolina. Does he say?
Chuck Nice
No, he says, first off, we just have to know. Yeah, he knew what he was doing when he did that. First off, thank you, Dr. Tyson, for digitally diligently working to spark people's curiosities for the cosmos. What all needs to go into consideration when deciding where to build a telescope of this magnitude. So why the. Why that location?
Zelko Ivisic
Why Chile? Right. So first you want to go to a place like Chile. You want to go high.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
The Andes Mountains goes the complete length of Chile. So. So he'd say, go to Chile. You got mountains galore.
Zelko Ivisic
That particular location, like that peak was part of that AURA property that is already developed. There is a road, Then there is SOAR telescope. And then soar.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
S O A R. S O A R. Yes. That's an acronym. Yes. Okay.
Zelko Ivisic
And then there is ctio, which stands for Cerro Tololo Inter American Observatory, which is half an hour away from our site.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
That's where I got all my thesis data was from ctio. Every now in Chile, you know, multiple.
Zelko Ivisic
So there is this AURA supported infrastructure, including roads and other observatories that provide infrastructure.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
So that kept the cost down. You didn't have to build a road.
Zelko Ivisic
Exactly.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
And level out a new mountaintop. And because other telescopes are active there, there's good statistics on observing conditions.
Zelko Ivisic
You can expect it was very dark site. It's important that there are no lights polluting your background. And we knew that we had many clear nights per year and the atmosphere was very stable. So our images are very sharp. Like if you wanted to go, say, to Kitt Peak, Arizona, that is also storied place to observe. It's not as good in terms of darkness because there are nearby big cities.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
It's not Tucson, Arizona, I think, is right nearby.
Zelko Ivisic
And then it's not as good in terms of atmospheric stability. We get better image quality.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Is that because you're off the ocean.
Zelko Ivisic
And there's a certain combination geography, Ocean and Andes together?
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Yeah.
Chuck Nice
Oh, wow. Yeah, you're like shielded on one side and then the ocean.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
I mean, well, this is stability. I mean, this is how why Hawaii does so well. Well, right there's exactly.
Zelko Ivisic
Very similar.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Yeah, yeah. So laminar flow, I think, instead of turbulent flow.
Chuck Nice
Right.
Zelko Ivisic
Canary Islands too.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Oh, you forgot about them. Yes, of course.
Chuck Nice
Oh, very cool. All right, well, that was a good question.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Thanks.
Chuck Nice
Stephen Schultz.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Chuck, I think we have time for one more.
Chuck Nice
Oh, all righty. How about Chris Ayala, who says, Dearest Dr. Tyson, Lord. Nice. And Dr. Ivisich, Chris Ayala from New Jersey here. And my question is, what are your greatest fears and aspirations for this project going forward?
Zelko Ivisic
Ooh, that is a great question. Yeah, let's start with fear. So we end up on good note with aspirations.
Chuck Nice
Okay, good, good. There you go.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
And by the way, if something breaks next year, is it your fault?
Zelko Ivisic
Next year it will be fault of my colleague called Bob Lam. He will be new director.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Whoever's the director at the time, like.
Zelko Ivisic
The fren king said, flood after me or something like that. Okay. All right, so let's hope that doesn't happen. But yes, if it broke mirror, you cannot just go to a grocery store get new one. You have to wait for years.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
You can't even go to Home Depot.
Zelko Ivisic
You can't go Home Depot. It's something that is not optional.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
What would break the mirror?
Zelko Ivisic
Something falls onto it. Maybe we try to maintain something and we are not careful. And there are not many examples in astronomy where people broke mirror and especially not large mirrors. They are very complicated procedures where every step is prescribed, like ballet. You just don't go there and do what you want.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
It's already pre established. But sometimes there's a risk that you don't know was a risk. That's how they decide. When they put in a traffic light on a country road, you do it after there's been accidents.
Zelko Ivisic
Exactly.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Because the stop sign didn't.
Zelko Ivisic
Camera is the largest camera in the world, very complex, and there are things that can go wrong with it. Maybe it's vacuum, it's cooling and things like this. You cannot guarantee that.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Oh, that's right. You cool the chip.
Zelko Ivisic
We have to cool the chip to.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Like minus 100 centigrade, otherwise it would detect itself.
Zelko Ivisic
Yeah, it would look like, I mean, people from your generation. You remember those old TVs when there was snow on TV, that's how our images would look like.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Yeah, it would just be all noise if you didn't cool it down. Okay. And that would be fundamental to the flow of the data stream. If that. Okay.
Zelko Ivisic
Then there is also possibility that we don't get funding to operate it. But I'm not going there. I'm going to switch to aspirations.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Yes. Okay.
Zelko Ivisic
So aspirations are that we first. That we fulfill everything we promised. All the science projects from cosmology to hazardous asteroids, that we deliver on what we've been saying for two decades, we will deliver then next that we will have some unknown, unknown exciting result that will be perhaps even more exciting than everything else that we planned for. That would be like a great super thing to happen.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
And let me insert there. Is there a serendipity mode either in the software or in the targeting? Where? Kind of like when Hubble, the director of the Hubble Institute, said let's point it to a random place, nothing there. Just see what happens. See what happens.
Zelko Ivisic
Talked about it. We just didn't call it that. It's target of opportunity observations for LIGO, for neutrinos, those 2%, that's when we interact what we are doing.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Gotcha. Okay.
Zelko Ivisic
And. And we do something different. But because we scan the sky every few nights over and over and over, serendipity will come by itself. Because you basically look at everything on.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
The sky, of course.
Chuck Nice
Right.
Zelko Ivisic
Wow.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
That's. That's. He said it. Because any normal tells. Normal typical telescope, you have an observing plan because you already know what you want to look at, right? Because I already predetermined. This is interesting. That means I'm not looking at this thing. I don't know if it's interesting, but I know this is interesting. And this goes undetected, unexplored.
Chuck Nice
But when you're looking at everything, you.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Don'T have that problem.
Chuck Nice
That's pretty cool. That's really cool. Well, this is an opportunity to say for all of our listeners, this is where you have to call your senator and tell them, do not defund science. Do not take money away from science. You're not giving us any money in the first place. So it's not like there's a lot to take away. So just leave it alone so that we can continue doing these type of projects that actually are for the benefit of all mankind and the entire globe and our future as a species. So yeah, keep your grubby little hands off of our science money. There you have it.
Zelko Ivisic
Lord Knights, I love you.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Suppose you don't like money getting spent on art or on science. These are frivolous activities done by people who are on the fringes of society. I suppose you could do that. You can create a country that allocates no money to the creativity expressed in art, the creativity expressed in science, or other exploits of human curiosity. You could do that. But think about it. Is that a country you would want to live in? A country with no art, no science, no discovery of any kind, no cosmic discovery holding aside that we might discover an asteroid that would render us extinct? Seems to me we'd want to know about that. Seems to me. But how about the rest of the splendor and the glory of the universe brought to us by frontier telescopes, not only on Earth, but in space. This is an activity as old as what it has been to be human. To look up and wonder, what is our place in this universe? I don't know anyone who has not looked up and thought that or felt it. Nobody looks down and has those thoughts. It's by looking up I'm imagining. If you're in Congress and they say, why should we fund science? What value does it play in national defense? Or the art projects that you have in mind? Or anything else that's just a pure expression of human curiosity in this world. My only answer would be, senator, it creates a country worth defending. That is a cosmic perspective. Well, thank you for being on StarTalk.
Zelko Ivisic
Thank you again for inviting Ruben.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Oh, that's your new name now, Ruben.
Zelko Ivisic
It's my team.
Chuck Nice
That's a great. It's like you don't talk to me. You're talking to the whole team and everybody who.
Zelko Ivisic
Yeah, it's the greatest astronomical discovery machine.
Chuck Nice
Ever built and nobody can say anything.
Zelko Ivisic
Greatest movie of all time.
Chuck Nice
No, you just went. You just went Tom Brady on us. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, it's a fun fact. Yeah. Some people call me the greatest of all time, but I mean, like, I don't have to. I just let other people do that.
Zelko Ivisic
Ruben is Michael Jones Jordan of Astronomy.
Chuck Nice
There you go.
Zelko Ivisic
Thank you, guys.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Yeah. So, Dr. Abachik, thank you for flying all the way here to New York for this from uw, Seattle, Washington.
Zelko Ivisic
Pleasure. Thank you.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
All right, Chuck, always good to have you, man.
Chuck Nice
Always a pleasure.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
All right, as always, I bid you to keep looking up.
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Neil DeGrasse Tyson
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Zelko Ivisic
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Neil DeGrasse Tyson
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StarTalk Radio - Episode Summary: Vera Rubin Observatory with Zeljko Ivezic
Episode Title: Vera Rubin Observatory with Zeljko Ivezic
Release Date: July 29, 2025
Host: Neil deGrasse Tyson
Guest: Zeljko Ivezic
Timestamp References: [MM:SS]
In this episode of StarTalk Radio, astrophysicist and Hayden Planetarium Director, Neil deGrasse Tyson, is joined by co-host Chuck Nice and esteemed guest Zeljko Ivezic, the director of the Vera Rubin Observatory’s construction project. The discussion centers on the groundbreaking Vera Rubin Observatory, its technological advancements, scientific goals, and its potential impact on our understanding of the universe.
Neil begins by introducing the Vera Rubin Observatory (formerly known as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope or LSST), emphasizing its renaming in honor of astrophysicist Vera Rubin, renowned for her work on dark matter. At [03:07], Zeljko Ivezic shares, "By and large, we are done, but now we are fine-tuning the system. It's a very complex system, especially the software. So we are learning how to optimize it." This sets the stage for an in-depth exploration of the observatory’s capabilities and objectives.
The conversation delves into the technical aspects of the observatory. Zeljko explains that the telescope's construction is nearing completion, with all major components assembled and now undergoing fine-tuning, particularly the software systems essential for its operation. At [06:07], he mentions, "We are not going to think every evening, like, let me look at this, let me look at that. That's the old way." This underscores the shift towards automation and data-driven operations in modern astronomy.
A key focus is the observatory’s ambitious survey strategy. Zeljko outlines the plan to scan the entire sky repeatedly over a decade, capturing comprehensive data on celestial objects. At [06:36], he states, "We want to scan the sky as quickly as we can. Basically, we can cover the sky every three, four nights. And we want to do it over and over and over relentlessly for 10 years." This relentless scanning approach aims to create a detailed, dynamic map of the sky, facilitating numerous scientific discoveries.
The Vera Rubin Observatory is set to generate an unprecedented volume of data—about 60 petabytes over ten years. Zeljko emphasizes the commitment to open data access, enabling collaboration beyond the scientific community. At [06:47], he remarks, "We just want to scan the sky... That's what gives us confidence we'll find something super cool." Tools like Sky Viewer are being developed to make this data accessible and engaging for the public, educators, and citizen scientists.
Zeljko outlines four primary scientific pillars of the observatory:
At [11:21], he explains, "That's one of the four pillars that we have. So it's studying the solar system asteroids... studying the Milky Way stars... cosmology..." These pillars aim to address some of the most pressing questions in modern astrophysics, from the nature of dark energy to the dynamics of our own galaxy.
The observatory leverages advanced AI to manage its vast data influx. Zeljko discusses how AI aids in data processing, object classification, and anomaly detection. At [21:37], he notes, "AI comes in many places in our observatory... we couldn't do that without AI." This integration is crucial for efficiently handling the scale of data and enabling real-time identification of significant celestial events.
The discussion highlights the importance of international collaboration in astronomical projects. Zeljko advocates for global coordination to maximize scientific outcomes and resource efficiency. At [41:29], he states, "I do believe that today we need more coordination between different nations around the globe because these instruments are becoming more and more expensive." This approach ensures that advancements in technology and data sharing benefit the global scientific community.
Neil and Zeljko explore opportunities for public involvement through citizen science projects. Recent initiatives invite non-professionals to assist in tasks like identifying comets, which aids in training AI systems. At [31:14], Zeljko mentions, "There is already ongoing citizen science project with comets... they're looking at things that move." This engagement not only democratizes scientific research but also fosters a deeper public connection to astronomical discoveries.
The observatory faces several challenges, including maintaining the delicate mirrors and ensuring uninterrupted funding for operations. Zeljko discusses the meticulous procedures to prevent damage and maintain the mirror's integrity. At [48:49], he explains, "We carry mirror in horizontal position... It took hours to go through [the tunnel]." Additionally, the reliance on advanced technology introduces potential risks, such as technical failures or software glitches, which require robust maintenance protocols.
Looking ahead, Zeljko expresses aspirations for the observatory to fulfill its scientific promises and potentially uncover unexpected phenomena. At [59:35], he shares, "We will deliver then next that we will have some unknown, unknown exciting result that will be perhaps even more exciting than everything else that we planned for." The continuous scanning approach inherently fosters serendipitous discoveries, expanding our knowledge beyond current scientific boundaries.
The episode concludes with a passionate endorsement for continued funding and support for large-scale scientific projects like the Vera Rubin Observatory. Neil deGrasse Tyson underscores the importance of investing in science to drive discovery and preserve the nation's leadership in astronomical research. At [60:38], he encapsulates the discussion: "It's about creating a country worth defending... to look up and wonder, what is our place in this universe." This call to action emphasizes the broader societal and existential benefits of investing in scientific exploration.
Notable Quotes:
Zeljko Ivezic [06:07]: "In a few months in October, probably we'll be done with construction, and then we turn it on, and it's effectively a robotic telescope, robotic observatory."
Chuck Nice [07:11]: "You guys are like the early days of Walt Disney."
Zeljko Ivezic [11:21]: "That's one of the four pillars that we have. So it's studying the solar system asteroids... studying the Milky Way stars... cosmology..."
Zeljko Ivezic [21:37]: "AI comes in many places in our observatory... we couldn't do that without AI."
Zeljko Ivezic [31:14]: "There is already ongoing citizen science project with comets... they're looking at things that move."
Zeljko Ivezic [41:29]: "I do believe that today we need more coordination between different nations around the globe because these instruments are becoming more and more expensive."
Zeljko Ivezic [59:35]: "We will deliver then next that we will have some unknown, unknown exciting result that will be perhaps even more exciting than everything else that we planned for."
Neil deGrasse Tyson [60:38]: "It's about creating a country worth defending... to look up and wonder, what is our place in this universe."
This comprehensive summary captures the essence of the discussion on the Vera Rubin Observatory, highlighting its technological innovations, scientific ambitions, collaborative spirit, and the profound implications for our understanding of the cosmos.