Illuminating the achievements of a scientific luminary

Almost 80 years prior, an aspiring astronomy scholar named Vera Rubin declined the chance for postgraduate education at Harvard. Now, a decade after her passing, the trailblazing astronomer will be honored on campus as a scientific icon.

Rubin, whose findings on dark matter reshaped both astronomy and physics, will be celebrated with a weeklong event series commencing on June 23. This will include the inaugural public screening of images from a new observatory named after her, along with the launch of a commemorative quarter.

“Intellectually, we’re all still grappling with the implications of the astronomy that she conducted,” remarked Christopher W. Stubbs, the Samuel C. Moncher Professor of Physics and Astronomy and a member of the scientific team overseeing the new observatory. “She introduced scientific disorder that we’ve all been contending with ever since.”

The celebration will commence on Monday with a livestream showcasing the initial images from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, a cutting-edge astronomy and astrophysics establishment in Cerro Pachón, Chile — a mountaintop locale selected for its dryness and its elevation of 2,600 meters, providing unobstructed views of the sky.

Supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy, this 350-ton instrument stands as the most robust survey telescope globally and features the largest digital camera ever constructed. It will capture detailed visuals of the Southern Hemisphere sky to create ultra-wide, ultra-high-definition, time-lapse videos of the universe.

The premiere images will be unveiled at 11 a.m. The primary event will occur at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., and will be streamed online and at viewing parties worldwide. The gathering at Harvard will kick off at 10:30 a.m. in Jefferson Lab 250.

Over twenty years ago, Stubbs was part of a team of researchers that secured federal funding to initiate planning for the new telescope. That proposal ultimately evolved into the $800 million observatory that is set to begin operations this month following numerous challenges and collaborations with other institutions.

Stubbs expressed excitement about the new images being extraordinary.

“When you gaze at these pictures, you simply exclaim, ‘Wow, look at all those galaxies!’” he stated. “It’s like a tapestry of galaxies — some near, some far, red ones, blue ones, interacting, colliding, in various shapes and sizes.”

The telescope will consistently survey the sky over a decade-long project. It is expected to generate 20 terabytes of data nightly and within a year will produce more optical astronomy data than all preceding telescopes combined.

“For solar system inquiries, it represents a substantial advancement,” noted Matt Holman, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. “It’s going to discover nearly ten times more objects than we currently know, ranging from asteroids that we worry might strike the Earth to the furthest Kuiper Belt objects, and perhaps even planets in our solar system that remain unseen.”

On Thursday, Harvard will host a series of talks and a science festival to honor Rubin. The occasion will coincide with the release of the Rubin quarter, part of a U.S. Mint initiative recognizing impactful American women.

Rubin is most renowned for being the researcher who illuminated the concept of dark matter. Born in 1928, her fascination with astronomy began as a child gazing at stars from her bedroom window.

She pursued astronomy at Vassar College and gained admission to the graduate program at Harvard, but opted to attend Cornell as her newlywed husband was enrolled there.

As she later recounted, the director of the Harvard observatory sent a formal letter acknowledging her withdrawal and added a handwritten note: “Damn you women. Every time I prepare a good one, she goes off and gets married.”

Later, Rubin obtained her Ph.D. from Georgetown and examined the characteristics and movements of distant galaxies.

As a female scientist, she frequently faced condescension from male counterparts and obstacles in accessing scientific facilities and conferences. She spent a majority of her career as a researcher at the Carnegie Institute in Washington, D.C., while raising four children, all of whom became scientists.

She is primarily recognized for her findings which indicated that the majority of the universe remains unseen. Her assessments demonstrated that galaxies must possess at least five to ten times more mass than can be directly observed based on the light emitted by ordinary matter.

By the time of her death in 2016 at 88 years old, her discoveries had been largely validated.

“To begin with, she made an incredible discovery, and anyone, regardless of background, who accomplishes that deserves admiration,” stated Elana Urbach, a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard working with data from the new Rubin observatory and coordinating the campus celebration. “However, the reality that she achieved this remarkable discovery amidst the adversities she faced enhances her narrative — making her an even greater role model.”