Photo Gallery
On the late night of 23 June 2025, Prof Yiming Zhong organized a watch party at the CityUHK to mark the special occasion of the first image release from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, joining more than 350 other watch parties around the world. This observatory, the most advanced astronomical facility of its kind, is located on Cerro Pachón in Chile. It is named after the legendary astronomer Vera C. Rubin, whose observations of galaxy rotation curves provided key evidence for the existence of dark matter.
The technological capabilities of the Rubin Observatory are remarkable. It is equipped with an 8.4-meter fast-moving telescope and a 3-billion-pixel digital camera—the largest ever built. Over the next ten years, this will enable astronomers to survey the sky and catalog billions of galaxies and stars and millions of asteroids. The data will significantly improve our understanding of dark matter, dark energy, and the history of the Milky Way. It will also enhance our ability to track asteroids that could pose a threat to humanity. All data collected by the observatory will be made publicly available to both the scientific community and the general public.
The watch party was attended by ten participants, including undergraduate and master’s students, a postdoc, and faculty members from the Department of Physics and other departments. Prof Zhong gave a presentation on the features of the Rubin Observatory and what we can expect from its ten-year survey. The attendees then watched a live-streamed session from the United States, unveiling the first astonishing celestial images and videos taken only from a few days of observations, yet already breathtaking.
09 Jul 2025