The Vera Rubin Observatory has detected 2,100 asteroids in just 10 hours of operation. While the public’s gaze was focused on majestic images of galaxies and nebulae, the impact of Rubin’s debut lies in what we can barely see: tiny moving dots that could change the future of our civilization. NASA also captured a near-Earth asteroid on July 28.
The asteroid was discovered on July 4, 2025, by the NASA-funded Pan-STARRS2 survey telescope
On the one hand, the images shared by the US space agency reveal that this rocky celestial body, called 2025 OW, passed within 640,000 kilometers of our planet, is about 60 meters wide, and has an irregular shape. Its close approach has raised concerns about whether this asteroid could impact Earth, as happened with 2024 YR4. Given this uncertainty, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory explains on its official blog that “Goldstone’s measurements have allowed scientists to significantly reduce the uncertainty about the asteroid’s distance from Earth and its future motion for many decades.”
The asteroid was discovered on July 4, 2025, by the NASA-funded Pan-STARRS2 survey telescope on Haleakala in Maui, Hawaii. The observations also indicate that it is rapidly spinning, completing one rotation every 1½ to 3 minutes, making it one of the fastest-spinning near-Earth asteroids that the powerful radar system has observed, says the NASA on the website.
This July 28th close approach is the closest asteroid 2025 OW will reach Earth in the foreseeable future
Goldstone’s measurements have allowed scientists to significantly reduce the uncertainty surrounding the asteroid’s distance to Earth and its future motion, at least for many decades. This July 28th close approach is the closest asteroid 2025 OW will reach Earth in the foreseeable future.
It’s particularly relevant to note that the observatory is named after pioneering American astronomer Vera C. Rubin, whose research provided the first conclusive evidence of the existence of dark matter, a mysterious substance that doesn’t emit light but exerts gravitational influence on galaxies. According to LSST scientists, Rubin should identify 90% of hazardous asteroids larger than 140 meters in diameter.
The Vera Rubin Observatory project is funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory project, on the other hand, is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Department of Energy. Its primary mission is the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), a kind of “cosmic time-lapse” that will capture complete images of the southern hemisphere sky every three nights for the next 10 years. “The Rubin Observatory is an investment in our future, laying the foundation of today’s knowledge upon which our children will proudly build tomorrow,” said Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
How does the asteroid tracking project work?
Every three days, the entire visible sky will be photographed in ultra-high resolution. The result is a larger astronomical database than ever before, ready to reveal everything that moves or changes in brightness in space. This is only possible because Rubin combines one of the world’s largest ground-based telescopes with the largest digital camera ever built. This allows for the observation of objects that would normally go unnoticed, such as small, faint, and fast-moving asteroids, with great clarity.
These findings show us that scientific advances are, in addition to being a source of joy, a way to predict possible future damage. Asteroids are, for the most part, harmless. But it only takes one to be in the wrong orbit for tragedy to occur. Consider the famous Tunguska event of 1908, which devastated an entire area of Siberia. If something similar were to happen in a city today, the damage would be catastrophic.
