Astrophotography
Telescope causes national security concern
Tuesday, December 10, 2024
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Russ Scritchfield |
What happens when a Telescope causes national security concern? In the blog "When a Telescope Is a National-Security Risk", Ross Andersen discusses astronomer Željko Ivezić's negotiations to ensure the Vera Rubin Observatory, a $1 billion telescope in the Chilean high desert, doesn't pose a national security risk when it begins operations.
In his blog titled "When a Telescope Is a National-Security Risk," author Ross Andersen explores a unique situation faced by astronomer Željko Ivezić in early 2023. Ivezić, director of the Vera Rubin Observatory, was tasked with navigating a highly unusual negotiation to ensure that his $1 billion telescope, under construction in the Chilean high desert, would not compromise U.S. national security when it began its operations in 2024.
Photo credit: Rubin Observatory/NSF/AURA/O. Rivera
The negotiations were odd for Ivezić, who had no direct communication with the agency involved and was left in the dark about its identity. Communication occurred through intermediaries at the National Science Foundation, and the involved parties were security-conscious but surprisingly knowledgeable about astronomy.
Telescope causes national security concern: The story behind the Vera Rubin Observatory
The Vera Rubin Observatory, located atop a mountain in the Atacama Desert, is designed to offer unprecedented astronomical capabilities. Unlike the James Webb Space Telescope, which observes small regions of the sky, the Vera Rubin will be able to scan large sections of the sky, capturing images that extend 13 billion light-years into space within 30 seconds. Within three nights, it will have captured a deep image of the entire sky by systematically scanning tile-by-tile.
