University of Delaware

Department of Physics and Astronomy

Biden School of Public Policy and Administration

Data Science Institute

Rubin Legacy Survey of Space and Time

Deputy Project Scientist, Construction

federica b. bianco

she/her

Building a legacy:

Vera C. Rubin Observatory
Legacy Survey of Space and Time

To accomplish this, we need:

1) a large telescope mirror to be sensitive - 8m (6.7m)

2) a large field-of-view for sky-scanning speed - 10 deg2

3) high spatial resolution, high quality images - 0.2''/pixels

4) process images in realtime and offline to produce 10M nightly alerts and catalogs of all 37B objects

>=18000 sq degrees

~800 visits per field

2 visits per night (within ~30 min for asteroids)

+ 5x10sq deg Deep Drilling Fields with ~8000 visits

Objective: to provide a science-ready dataset to transform the 4 key science area

LSST Science Drivers

Probing Dark Energy and Dark Matter

Mapping the Milky Way and Local Volume

Building an unprecedented catalog of Solar System Objects

Exploring the Transient Optical Sky

Data Products

1) real time alert on 5-sigma detections in DIA in 60 seconds from shutter close (120 sec in year 1)

2) annual data releases of catalogs and coadded images

Objective: to provide a science-ready dataset to transform the 4 key science area

2025

Are We There YET????!!!!

artist (me) impression of the first image taken by ComCam

https://rubinobservatory.org/news/rubin-completes-comcam-tests

The DOE LSST Camera - 3.2 Gigapixel

3024 science raft amplifier channels

Camera and Cryostat integration completed at SLAC in May 2022,

Shutter and filter auto-changer integrated into camera body

LSSTCam undergoing final stages of testing at SLAC

Eye to the sky…on-sky engineering tests have begun at @nsfgov–@energy Rubin Observatory using the world’s largest digital camera!🔭

April 17 2025

First Look

Event

First Look

Event

June 23, 2025

Rubin First Look!

678 separate images taken in just over seven hours of observing time. Trifid nebula (top right) and the Lagoon nebula, which are several thousand light-years away from Earth. | NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory

Virgo cluster. Visible are two prominent spiral galaxies (lower right), three merging galaxies (upper right), several groups of distant galaxies, many stars in the Milky Way galaxy and more.

June 30, 2025

DP1 release!

First Look

Event

June 30, 2025

DP1 release!

June 27, 2025

Science Validation Survey

First Look

Event

June 27, 2025

Science Validation Survey

https://sitcomtn-005.lsst.io/

LSST-DESI synergy

SNe

- spectroscopic redshifts of LSST Type Ia Supernovae (SNe Ia) host galaxies
- correlations of SN Ia and Galaxy properties to decontaminate cosmologial samples
- an ultra-deep DESI program in the LSST Deep Drilling Fields potentially providing the deepest and highest-completeness SN Ia sample in the LSST era.
- 50% increase in the number of well-sampled SNe Ia with host spectroscopic redshifts

Kynematic Lensing
- combining LSST photometric galaxy ellipticity with pectroscopic galaxy velocity fields

Galaxy clusters

- Enables a 3x2-point analysis using the full three-dimensional clustering signal from the spectroscopic lens sample.

- Allows for "Lens=Source" analyses where the high-density DESI-II sample is used for both lenses and sources with shapes from Rubin), potentially removing photometric redshift and intrinsic alignment systematics

Dwarf Galaxy
redshifts for low-mass galaxies combined with Rubin lensing measurements could probe significantly lower mass halos than previously possible