[BBC] A powerful new telescope in Chile has released its first images, showing off its unprecedented ability to peer into the dark depths of the universe.
In one picture, vast colourful gas and dust clouds swirl in a star-forming region 9,000 light years from Earth.
The Vera C Rubin observatory, home to the world's most powerful digital camera, promises to transform our understanding of the universe.
If a ninth planet exists in our solar system, scientists say this telescope would find it in its first year.
It should detect killer asteroids in striking distance of Earth and map the Milky Way. It will also answer crucial questions about dark matter, the mysterious substance that makes up most of our universe.
In a press conference on Monday, the observatory revealed that in 10 hours, the telescope detected 2,104 new asteroids and seven space objects close to Earth.
All other space and ground surveys combined usually find about 20,000 asteroids in a year.
This once-in-a-generation moment for astronomy is the start of a continuous 10-year filming of the southern night sky.
"I personally have been working towards this point for about 25 years. For decades we wanted to build this phenomenal facility and to do this type of survey," says Professor Catherine Heymans, Astronomer Royal for Scotland.
The UK is a key partner in the survey and will host data centres to process the extremely detailed snapshots as the telescope sweeps the skies capturing everything in its path. 
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