Just in its first year of operation, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile is expected to generate images of more objects than all optical telescopes in the history of astronomy combined. This breathtaking effort is only possible due to an international system of distributed analysis.
Each night, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory generates several million alerts, each indicating an observation of potential interest. Pending on further analysis, these observations could reveal phenomena such as a supernova at an early stage, an asteroid close to Earth, or an object in a different position than anticipated. Since it is not possible to devote equal attention to the many alerts, the observatory will run an automated process to identify the most promising findings.
Located in Cerro Pachón in Chile, the observatory is funded by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Office of Science at the US Department of Energy (DOE). Distribution of the huge data amounts is handled by REUNA, the national research and education network (NREN) of Chile, and partners AmLight, ESnet, SLAC, rednesp, RedCLARA, Florida LambdaRail, and Internet2. This is a global collaboration where communication between systems, advanced networks, and people is crucial.
Seven million alerts each night
During the first night of operation, on February 24, 2026, the observatory generated some 800,000 alerts. The number will gradually increase and is predicted to reach about seven million alerts per night on average.
Named “Automatic Learning for the Rapid Classification of Events” (ALeRCE), the automated platform will apply Artificial Intelligence to classify, prioritize, and visualize the astronomy alerts in near-real time, facilitating access to the data for the international scientific community.
ALeRCE is one of seven international scientific brokers, and the only of these located in Chile.
“By connecting the scientists to the vast and continuous flow of information, the NSF-DOE Rubin Observatory can survey the events taking place in the Universe as they occur, from the most energetic outbursts to the faintest,” says Luca Rizzi, Director of the NSF program for research infrastructure.
Even subtle differences will be noted
For each 40 seconds during the nightly observations, Rubin will capture a new celestial region. The ALeRCE system will automatically compare the new images with a reference catalogue consisting of the images from the previous observation of the same region. Even the most subtle differences will be identified. These could be an object in a different place, the appearance of a new light source, or a variation in the brightness of an object. Each such observed difference will trigger an alert.
“The alert system of Rubin was designed to allow any person to identify astronomical events of interest with sufficient anticipation and quickly obtain relevant observations,” says Eric Bellm, heading the Alert Generation Group for Rubin at the NSF laboratory NOIRLab at the University of Washington.
Each night, more than 10 Tera Bytes of new images will be produced, notes Eric Bellm:
“We are anxious to see the exiting scientific discoveries that will come from these data.”
Featured Image: The Rubin Observatory Photo by Olivier Bonin / SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
The text is inspired by the article “ALeRCE recibe las primeras alertas del Observatorio Vera C. Rubin” (in Spanish) at the REUNA website and by the press release “NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory Launches Real-Time Discovery Machine for Monitoring the Night Sky” from the Rubin Observatory.
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