Astronomers Discover Massive Asteroid Using World’s Largest Digital Camera

In a groundbreaking discovery, astronomers have identified an enormous asteroid, measuring approximately a half mile in diameter, equivalent to nearly eight football fields. This massive space rock, designated as 2025 MN45, has been spotted with the aid of the world’s largest digital camera and a new space observatory.

According to a report published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the asteroid’s remarkable size and rapid spin rate make it a significant find. The team from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and United States Department of Energy (DOE) utilized the cutting-edge Vera C. Rubin Observatory, situated on a mountaintop in Chile, to detect the asteroid.

The observatory is equipped with the 3,200 megapixel LSST Camera, which enables it to capture an image every 40 seconds. This capability allows the Rubin Observatory to create an ultra-wide, ultra-high-definition time-lapse record of the universe. Popular Science reports that the Rubin Observatory will repeatedly scan the sky for 10 years, generating an avalanche of new information about the universe.

As Luca Rizzi, an NSF program director for research infrastructure, noted, “NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory will find things that no one even knew to look for.