ALT A large group of people gathers outdoors on a grassy area with trees and a modern building in the background. The group is smiling and waving towards the camera, creating a joyful atmosphere on a sunny day. Credit: Alan Fry/SLAC

ALT A "selfie" from two workers wearing helmets and safety vests using Rubin's primary mirror. They're standing on a metal platform with metal structural beams reflected behind them.

ALT Five workers wearing safety gear inside Rubin's dome next to a curved concrete wall.

ALT A person in red safety gear and yellow helmet laying on a platform while working on Rubin's giant digital camera.

ALT Two people working on computers in an office with safety hard hats and high-visibility vests nearby.

ALT A modern building with large windows and a red roof features a banner in front of it. The banner reads "Bay Area Light Sources Joint Users' Meeting, 20-25 September, 2026, A First-Ever Collaboration," and includes logos for Advanced Light Source, LCLS, and SSRL. An American flag is visible nearby. Credit: Lara Streiff/SLAC

ALT A series of seven full moons aligned horizontally against a backdrop of a starry night sky filled with distant galaxies and stars in the shape of the focal plane of the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory. Credit: NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory/NOIRLab/SLAC/AURA

ALT A group of people gather around a science exhibit outdoors under a tent. One person is operating scientific equipment, while others, including children, watch with interest. Some individuals are holding balloons, and there is a festive atmosphere. Credit: Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell/SLAC

ALT A group of people are interacting with a plasma globe at SLAC Community Day 2026. Children are touching the globe, observing the colorful electric arcs. In the background, attendees, including some wearing Stanford shirts, are engaging with various exhibits. Credit: Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell/SLAC

ALT A person touching a Van de Graaff generator outdoors, causing hair to stand on end. Two others stand nearby, smiling and reacting with amusement. Trees and a building are visible in the background. Credit: Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell/SLAC

ALT A person wearing a virtual reality headset extends their arms as if interacting with a virtual environment. Behind them is a display with a sign that reads "Cryo-EM Center, S²C²." The room contains informational posters and tables with scientific models. Credit: Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell/SLAC

ALT Three diagrams of RNA molecules, which look like multicolored balls of tangled curled ribbon

ALT A dense field of countless pinpoint stars fills the frame against the deep black of space, creating a fine, grainy texture like fine sand spread across a smooth table. Dozens of particularly bright stars in blue, yellow, and orange glitter across the scene like jewels. Wispy, grayish clouds of galactic dust drift across the center and right sides of the image, appearing soft and powder-like against the dark background. Scattered throughout the entire scene are stars and faint objects in shades of blue, yellow, and red. Some appear as sharp, solid points, while others are soft, diffuse smudges. Zooming in reveals that many of these tiny, faint smudges scattered between the stars are actually distant galaxies, varying from smooth, pebble-like blobs to faint, stretched lines.

ALT Golden spiral galaxy with blueish spiral arms in a dense star field. Numerous orange and blue stars dot the dark sky, with a bright bluish star left of center and faint background galaxies scattered throughout.

ALT A wide, panoramic view of a dense field of pinpoint stars filling the entire frame like fine dust. A white square notes a specific galaxy near upper center. Wispy, grayish-brown clouds of galactic cirrus drift across the scene, creating a subtle, patchy texture over the dark background. Several brighter stars stand out, most notably a large, brilliant blue star on the upper right surrounded by a soft glowing halo, along with a few other scattered bright blue and warm orange stars.

ALT A map of the Dept. of Energy Office of Science National Laboratories

ALT From left, Atomic Energy Commission Director Glenn Seaborg, SLAC Director Pief Panofsky, Stanford University President J. E. Wallace Sterling, U.S. Presidential Science Advisor Don Horning and Edward L. Ginzton, former Professor of Applied Physics at Stanford University and the Director of Project M.

ALT Aerial view of SLAC Linear Accelerator Lab in California. Sparse trees and open land are visible.

ALT The image shows a scientific laboratory with a large cylindrical instrument known as the LUX-ZEPLIN experiment. The surrounding area contains various scientific equipment, cables, and metal surfaces. Bright lighting illuminates the scene. Credit: Matthew Kapust/Sanford Underground Research Laboratory

ALT Abstract scientific illustration depicting a luminous energy beam directed towards a square, textured surface with glowing, intricate patterns. The background features spherical formations, suggesting a theme of energy or particle interaction. Credit: Greg Stewart/SLAC

ALT A round shape with tree‑like pattern spreading outward from a dark central area, set against a blurred blue background. Researchers discovered a way to track and suppress harmful intrusions in dendrites that form in solid-state batteries. This top view of the electrolyte shows the dendrites that propagated horizontally. (Greg Stewart, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)

ALT A complex infographic shows a cube with a circular pattern on the left, connected by dotted lines to a central geometric shape. On the right, there are two labeled sections. The top section, "Arbitrary Resolution," displays a series of images transitioning from low to high resolution. The bottom section, "Different Scales," shows images ranging from coarse to fine detail. The color scheme is primarily purple and orange on a dark background. The AI-based method uses neural networks to reduce the overall file size while allowing users to control what information is kept. The neural network encodes features of the measurement at different scales in a compact form. At decoding, users can select a small region of interest to decode, and this can be done at different scales and resolutions, allowing finer features to be recovered when needed. (Credit: Yuan Ni and Greg Stewart/SLAC National Laboratory)

ALT Technician in cleanroom suit inspecting a large, cylindrical camera barrel inside a clean room.

ALT Close-up of a Romanesco broccoli head showing its intricate fractal pattern in black and white. The mosaic grid of LSST Camera's ~200 individual CCDs is visible as vertical and horizontal black lines.

ALT Workers in safety gear guide the car-sized LSST Camera suspended by green straps inside Rubin's large maintenance hall.

ALT Close-up view of the huge LSST Camera installed at the center of Rubin's 8.4-meter telescope, with metal scaffolding on either side.