A camera funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy released its first photos of the southern celestial hemisphere on Monday. The camera, which stands as the largest digital camera ever built, was developed as part of an effort to study dark matter, an elusive force that scientists believe helped create the galaxies, as well as dark energy, which may be causing the universe to expand, according to the Associated Press. The camera is located at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile. The observatory’s stunning first photos of the so-called “Southern Sky” capture nebulae light-years away as well as a cluster of galaxies in the Virgo constellation. The observatory aims to eventually capture images of 20 billion different galaxies and discover new astronomical objects. Discoveries about dark energy could help scientists hypothesize about the universe’s ultimate fate and whether it will continue to expand or collapse, a phenomenon physicists refer to as the “Big Crunch,” AP News reports.
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