Shots in the dark: 'ultimate telescope' begins to shed light on distant galaxies

Spectacular views of distant galaxies, giant dust clouds and hurtling asteroids were revealed yesterday in the first images captured by a ground-breaking telescope that is embarking on a 10-year survey of the cosmos.

- Ian Sample

The stunning pictures from the $810m (£595m) Vera C Rubin Observatory in Chile mark the start of what astronomers believe will be a game-changing period of discovery as the telescope sets about compiling the best view yet of the universe.

In about 10 hours, the observatory identified 2,104 previously unrecorded asteroids in our solar system, including seven near-Earth asteroids said to pose no danger to the planet.

"I'm absolutely blown away. Just look, it's teeming with gorgeous, glittering galaxies," said Prof Catherine Heymans, an astrophysicist at the University of Edinburgh and Scotland's astronomer royal.

"I'm so delighted that they chose Virgo for the 'first look' as it celebrates a key moment in humanity's dark matter story," Heymans added.

"It was 1930s observations of the Virgo and Coma clusters that prompted Fritz Zwicky to conclude there must be extra invisible dark matter out there."

Built on Cerro Pachón, a mountain in the foothills of the Chilean Andes, the 18-storey observatory is equipped with the largest camera ever built. It will observe the entire southern sky every three to four days and then repeat the process, over and over, for a decade.