The futuristic $1.9bn Vera C Rubin Observatory took nine years to build and will survey the night sky in unprecedented detail

After nine years of construction, a state-of-the-art telescope connected to the world’s largest camera is set to change our understanding of astronomy.

Perched on top of a barren mountaintop in the arid Chilean desert region of Coquimbo, the Vera C Rubin Observatory looks out of this world, quite literally.

With a slick, futuristic frame lodged into the mountain’s groove on Cerro Pachón, the observatory is characterised by a distinctively compact, revolving dome-like shape that splinters into a myriad of angles.

The unusual, isolated structure is the heart of a $1.9bn project that will begin to map the sky in early 2025.