LSST Science Drivers

Probing Dark Energy and Dark Matter

image credit ESO-Gaia

LSST Science Drivers

Mapping the Milky Way and Local Volume

via resolved stellar population

17B stars characterized in color, variability, position

An unprecedented inventory of the Solar System from threatening NEO to the distant Oort Cloud

LSST Science Drivers

LSST Science Drivers

Exploring the Transients and Variable Universe

10M astrophysical alerts per night

picked up and distributed worldwide by brokers like Lasair

Rubin Observatory

Site: Cerro Pachon, Chile

Funding: US NSF + DOE

Status: final phases of construction - completion expected 2023

September 2016

February 2020

May 2022

May 2022

what's in a name?

Rubin Obs is the first ground-based US National Observatory named after a woman astrophysicist, Dr. 

Vera Florence Cooper Rubin  

pioneered studies of Dark Matter through rotational curves

VRO

8m Telescope

9.6 deg.sq. field of view

maximizes survey entendue

Observatory

May 2022 - Telescope Mount Assembly

Status: ongoing demonstration of the Camera/Secondary Mirror (M2) removal procedures, and  ComCam installation expected in  August.

The DOE LSST Camera - 3.2 Gigapixel

3.2 Gigapixel camera 

378 4K ultra-high-definition TV

The DOE LSST Camera - 3.2 Gigapixel

Camera and Cryostat integration completed at SLAC in May,

Shutter and filter auto-changer integrated into camera body

3024 science raft amplifier channels, only 3 are substandard.

Rubin ugrizy filters

Summer 2021

AuxTel:

latest run June 28-July 1 2022

AuxTel is being used for monthly on-sky commissioning runs 3 nights/lunar cycle: Performing scheduler driven observations Standard star spectroscopy for characterization of atmospheric transmission Measure image performance as will be done in Ops

LOVE: LSST Operations Visualization Environment

The Rubin Observatory Construction Project

Rubin LSST

Telescope Mount Assembly complete 

October 2022

3-mirror Optical System Ready for Testing

July 2023

ComCam: Engineering First Light

September  2023

LSSTCam: System First Light

February  2024

Operations Readiness Review completed

June  2024

 

 

The Rubin Observatory Construction Project

Current

Forecast

Rubin Observatory's LSST

First ground based US National Observatory named for a woman, Dr. 

Vera Florence Cooper Rubin  

July 23, 1928 – December 25, 2016

LSST: the Legacy Survey of Space and Time

 will be delivered by
Rubin Observatory,
as its first, 10-year, project

LSST will observe about half of the sky close to 1000 times over 10 years.

survey specification

 

5 Deep Drilling Fields fields observed to higher cadence and more images (~18k)

 

 

Current baseline footprint

Wide Fast Deep survey

single image depth ~24

10-year stack image depth ~27

image resolution 0.2'' (seeing limited)

 

18,000 sq degrees 

815 images over 10 years in 6 filters

2 images per night

each fields reobserved within ~days

 

mini and micro-surveys

 

Targets of Opportunity

survey specification

 

5 Deep Drilling Fields fields observed to higher cadence and more images (~18k)

 

 

Current baseline footprint

Wide Fast Deep survey

single image depth ~24

10-year stack image depth ~27

image resolution 0.2'' (seeing limited)

 

18,000 sq degrees 

815 images over 10 years in 6 filters

2 images per night

each fields reobserved within ~days

 

mini and micro-surveys

 

Targets of Opportunity

survey specification

 

5 Deep Drilling Fields fields observed to higher cadence and more images (~18k)

 

 

Current baseline footprint

Wide Fast Deep survey

single image depth ~24

10-year stack image depth ~27

image resolution 0.2'' (seeing limited)

 

18,000 sq degrees 

815 images over 10 years in 6 filters

2 images per night

each fields reobserved within ~days

 

mini and micro-surveys

 

Targets of Opportunity

survey specification

single image depth ~24

10-year stack image depth ~27

image resolution 0.2'' (seeing limited)

 

18,000 sq degrees 

815 images over 10 years in 6 filters

2 images per night

each fields reobserved within ~days

 

5 Deep Drilling Fields fields observed to higher cadence and more images 

 

additional mini and micro-surveys

 ToO

Astronomy (re)meets Data Science

Nightly data rates

At this level of precision,everything is variable, everything is blended, everything is moving.

https://ls.st/srd

Bianco et al 2022

PSTN-054

SDSS

LSST

Rubin Data Products and the DM team

Science Pipeline v 23.0.0 released late 2021 (and v23.0.1 April 2022)

Rubin env rubin-env 4.0.0. deployed May 2022

Migration of accounts from NCSA to SLAC has started

Deployed alert distribution system - testing connection w alert brokers Jan 2022

 

Rubin Data Products and the DM team

Data Management verification phase:

Faro is a framework for automatically and efficiently computing scientific performance metrics on the LSST data products, a collaborative project between Rubin Data Management (DM) and System Integration, Test and Commissioning (SIT-Com) as part of a single coordinated project-wide science verification effort and with a view to Operations (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrhNkdK8hiw&list=PLPINAcUH0dXacwsNrhNnQSq0rOTRf0IfU&index=3&t=6s)

Rubin Data Products and the DM team

distributions of time gaps in 76 OpSims

Rubin LSST survey design

The survey strategy is being refined and will continue to be re-evaluated in Operations

The Survey Cadence Optimization Committee - SCOC

Minisurveys

Rubin LSST survey design

150

1200

Nvisits

SCOC PCW session, August 8-12 2022

SCOC Workshop, November 2022

Recommendation to the Director due on December 2022

 

Current baseline footprint

https://www.lsst.org/content/charge-survey-cadence-optimization-committee-scoc

https://community.lsst.org/t/scoc-v2-0-and-2-1-simulations-review-timeline/6712

24.6

24.6

26.8

28

26.9

28.1

5s depth

5s depth

coadd 5s depth

coadd 5s depth

source http://astro-lsst-01.astro.washington.edu:8080/?runId=2

23.0

22.5

0.576

0.52

intranight gap

hours

15

internight gap

days

15

internight gap

days

50

5

internight gap

days

source http://astro-lsst-01.astro.washington.edu:8080/?runId=2

3

0.576

0.52

intranight gap

hours

source http://astro-lsst-01.astro.washington.edu:8080/?runId=2

Rubin LSST Science Collaborations

New Science Collaborations Coordinator

Dr Will Clarkson, UMichigan Deerborn

Rubin LSST Science Collaborations

8 SCs - 6 continents - 2492 affiliations - 2090 people - 25 countries

Rubin LSST survey design

40+ submissions

85% led by SC members

and virtually all including SC members

The SCs were core to this process

Rubin Focus Issue of ApJS on Rubin Survey Strategy Optimization

https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/0067-0049/page/rubin_cadence

A focus issue of ApJS collects LSST cadence work

Rubin LSST SC Activities

AGN SC

SC meetings, in person and virtual

Hours of material available to the world through the SCs

LSST critical SC-lead activities

Dark Energy Science Collaboration

(DESC) 

+ 

Transients and Variable

Science Collaboration

(TVS SC)

Astronomy’s Discovery Chain

Discovery Engine

10M alerts/night

Community Brokers

target observation managers

LSST critical SC-lead activities

AMPEL

Rubin LSST Science Collaborations

The SCs aspire to be an inclusive, supportive, and nurturing environment for scientists in pursuing LSST-based science. Each SC has its own application process

https://www.lsstcorporation.org/science-collaborations

Rubin LSST Science Collaborations

A direct line to Project through dedicated Rubin liaisons, 

responsibility and right to participate in decision making committees, benefitting from the expert knowledge and develop new LSST-based collaborations

Why should I join?

Time

Domain

Science

 

"Static-sky"

Science

Time

Domain

Science

 

"Static-sky"

Science

Time

Domain

Science

 

"Static-sky"

Science

Time

Domain

Science

 

"Static-sky"

Science

AGN

STRONG

LENSING

50M+ AGNs to z~7.5

(AGN+Gal)

variability, microlensing, binaries

(AGN+TVS)

cosmography from Lens Time Delays

(SL+DESC)

calibration of cluster mass function with with S+W Lensing

(SL+DESC)

resolved high z galaxy properties

(SL+Gal)

Time

Domain

Science

 

"Static-sky"

Science

Alerts based

 

Catalog based

Deep stack

based

Deep stack

based

Time

Domain

Science

 

"Static-sky"

Science

Alerts based

 

Catalog based

Deep stack

based

informatics and statistics