Stanford celebrates the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory (and recalls university-government collaboration on science)

 Remember when universities and the Federal government collaborated on big science?

The bold bet that built a telescope

"When the first images from the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory were released on June 23, they marked a historic milestone for the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), a landmark 10-year campaign to map the southern sky with the world’s largest digital camera, set to begin full science operations later this year. 

"Today, Rubin is an $800 million observatory backed by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of Energy (DOE). But two decades ago, it was little more than a vision without funding, a home, or agency support.

"That changed in 2003, when Stanford University and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory jointly launched the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC), setting in motion a chain of events that helped bring the LSST to life." 

 

the digital camera...