You can’t tell just by looking, but the universe undergoes constant change. Stars explode. Quasars flare up. Asteroids zip past Earth. And soon, astronomers will be able to generate super-high-definition movies of those changes almost every night of the year. That’s because a new telescope dedicated to “time-domain” astronomy is about ready to take its first looks at the heavens.

The telescope is the centerpiece of the Vera Rubin Observatory. It’s named for an astronomer who provided strong evidence for the existence of dark matter. It’s atop an 8700-foot mountain in Chile.

The telescope’s main mirror, which gathers and focuses starlight, is 8.4 meters across – almost 28 feet. It has a wide field of view, allowing it to photograph the entire southern sky every few nights. It’ll record its observations on the largest digital camera ever built – 3200 megapixels.

Astronomers will use those observations to learn more about dark energy and dark matter, and to map the Milky Way Galaxy. And they’ll watch for things that change. They’ll discover asteroids and comets – both close to Earth and deep in the outer solar system. They’ll see novas, supernovas, and other brilliant flare-ups. And the observatory will send out immediate notices of each new outburst, allowing other astronomers to make detailed follow-up observations – learning much more about our constantly changing universe.

Script by Damond Benningfield