Rubin Observatory

Site: Cerro Pachon, Chile

Funding: US NSF + DOE

Status: final phases of construction - completion expected 2025

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

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 alerts every night shared with the world

60 seconds after observation

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 live alerts and catalogs of all 37B objects 

2M 3,200 Megapixel images in 10 years -about 60 PB of data

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

2026

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

SDSS

LSST-like HSC composite

' requirement: ls.st/srd

*simulation pstn-054.lsst.io

SDSS 2x4 arcmin sq griz

MYSUC (Gawiser 2014) 1 mag shallower than LSST coadds

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

' requirement: ls.st/srd

*simulation pstn-054.lsst.io

NOMINAL LSST REQUIREMENT:  

≤10 mas rms relative astrometric accuracy per axis

NOMINAL LSST REQUIREMENT:  

≤10 mas rms relative astrometric accuracy per axis

Improve on requirement by x10 (depending on stellar density)

September 2016

Fabruary 2020

May 2022

November 2022

May 2022

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

May 2022 - Telescope Mount Assembly

weight 2e5 kg, max slew rate 0.2 rad/s

Most of the weight in a 10m disk
Angular momentum
 

ok but when????????????

ls.st/dates

First data release ~3y from now

ls.st/dates

LSST

data products

Time

Domain

Science

Static

Science

Alerts based

Catalog based

Deep stack

based

Deep stack

based

Data Products

world public!

ls.st/LDM-612

Rubin Observatory LSST 

world public!

Alerts                                                               Images

Meta Data &

Catalog Visits  

80

Pitt-Google

Broker

BABAMUL

data right holders only

Rubin LSST survey design

Rubin LSST survey design

KN

Rubin LSST survey design

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

Rubin has involved the community to an unprecedented level in survey design this is a uniquely "democratic" process!

Survey Cadence Optimization Committee

Operation Simulator (OpSim)

simulates the catalog of LSST observations + observation properties

Metric Analysi Framwork (MAF)

Python API to interact with OpSims specifying science performance on a science case with a metric

Lynne Jones

Peter Yoachim

~100s simulations

~1000s MAFs

Rubin LSST survey design

Rubin LSST survey design

20+ peer review papers accepted several more under review and in preparation https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/0067-0049/page/rubin_cadence

Rubin LSST survey design

Rubin has involved the community to an unprecedented level in survey design this is a uniquely "democratic" process!

2017

Rubin LSST survey design

Rubin has involved the community to an unprecedented level in survey design this is a uniquely "democratic" process!

2019

Rubin LSST survey design

Rubin has involved the community to an unprecedented level in survey design this is a uniquely "democratic" process!

2023

Rubin LSST survey design

Rubin has involved the community to an unprecedented level in survey design this is a uniquely "democratic" process!

2024

Marshall et al. 2017

Mortersen et al. 2019

Kilonovae in LSST Wide Fast Deep

Smith +2019

Ragosta+ et al. 2023

Kilonovae in LSST Wide Fast Deep

 Presto-Color, Bianco+ 2019

Identified an issue with the original survey plan:

2 intranight obs in same filer +

2 intranight obs in another filter ~5 day later

Proposed 3 intranight obs

2 within 1 hour in different filters

1 at 4-8 hours separation w repeat filter

Kilonovae in LSST Wide Fast Deep

 Presto-Color, Bianco+ 2019

Identified an issue with the original survey plan:

2 intranight obs in same filer +

2 intranight obs in another filter ~5 day later

Proposed 3 intranight obs

2 within 1 hour in different filters

1 at 4-8 hours separation w repeat filter

Ofek+ 2024

• Kilonovae
• SN-GRB breakout
• Fast Radio Bursts
• X-ray binary stars,
• cataclysmic variable stars,
• blazars
• stellar flares
• solar system occultations
• technosignatures

based on 2017 LSST simulations

With a naive survey strategy the 2-14 hours time scales where significantly undersamples

Kilonovae in LSST Wide Fast Deep

Give me a few hours, Bellm+ 2019

Igor Andreoni et al 2022 ApJS 258 5

Assuming:
a rate of  800/Gpc^3/y

uniform luminosity function

=> ~350 GW170817-like kilonovae are expected to be present in Rubin data,

 => 3 – 32 might be identified using ZTFReST-like algorithms on pre 2018 simulations

Kilonovae in LSST Wide Fast Deep

Andreoni+ 2022a

newer simulations ->

2023 simulations: 62% improvement

newer simulations ->

4 – 24 hour gaps between epochs will enable kilonova parameter estimation

Kilonovae in LSST Wide Fast Deep

Andreoni+ 2022a

    2017

2024

Rubin LSST survey design

(~current plan: the Wide Fast Deep 75-90% of the sky time)

The LSST@europe series

has been exploring synergies with European missions and surveys

LSST@Europe6 - 2024 La Palma-  Spain

Synergy and Survey coordination

Synergy and Survey coordination

In preparation for Roman’s launch and operations, our analysis suggests to (i) make available a rapid (∼ 1 week) Target of Opportunity mode for GW follow-up; (ii) include observations of the High Latitude Time-Domain survey footprint in at least two filters [...]; (iii) operate in synergy with Rubin Observatory. 

Nandini Hazra & Marica's group

Vera Rubin Observatory and Einstein Telescope: kilonova observation strategies to understand ET detector design

Rubin ToO program

State of the art in coordination: GW Treasure Map

https://treasuremap.space/alerts?graceids=S230922g

Rubin ToO program

Andreoni+ 2022b

+80 authors!

PROS:

Large FoV (10 sq deg - easly cover 100 sq deg in full)

6 filters (5 available on any given night)

deep observations (r~24 in 30 sec, up to 180 sec)

public data

Rubin ToO program

Andreoni+ 2022b

+80 authors!

PROS:

Large FoV (10 sq deg - easly cover 100 sq deg in full)

6 filters (5 available on any given night)

deep observations (r~24 in 30 sec, up to 180 sec)

public data

Rubin ToO program

Andreoni+ 2022b

Rubin ToO program

Andreoni+ 2022b

~3% LSST sky time

Rubin ToO program

Rubin ToO program

Smith+ 2023

0.25% LSST time  1GLGW/year

Rubin ToO program

Smith+ 2023

The problem with GLGW is depth: it takes 1 visit to get to r~24,

about 40 visits to get to r~26

100 sq deg at r~24 ~10 min

100 sq deg at r~25-6 ~5h

0.25% LSST time  1GLGW/year

This is a workshop: the goal of the workshop is to produce a report to be delivered to the SCOC containing recommendations for how to implement ToO responses with Rubin. There are no talks.Time is dedicated to collaboratively working toward the workshop report.  

Rubin ToO program

SOC: I. Andreoni (KN), F. Bianco, A. Franckowiak (ν), T. Lister (Solar System),

R. Margutti (KN, GRB), G. Smith (Lensed KN)

Discovery Engine

10M alerts/night

Community Brokers

target observation managers

the astronomy discovery chain

Pitt-Google

Broker

BABAMUL

Photometric Classification of transients

highest participation of any astronomical Kaggle challenges

Rubin will see ~1000 SN every night!

Credit: Alex Gagliano  IAIFI fellow MIT/CfA

Deep Drilling Fields

Kaggle PLAsTiCC challenge

AVOCADO classifier

https://arxiv.org/abs/1907.04690

Deep Drilling Fields

Kaggle PLAsTiCC challenge

AVOCADO classifier

https://arxiv.org/abs/1907.04690

Wide Fast Deep

Willow Fox Fortino

UDel grad student

When they go high, we go low

Classification power vs spectral resolution for SNe subtypes

Neural Network

classifier architectures:

- transformers
- CNNs

Rubin Operations Research Inclusion team

slide: Leanne Guy

how to get involved

join a Rubin LSST Science Collaborations

8 teams

>1500 members

>2000 affiliations

5 continents

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

We aspire to be an inclusive, equitable, and ultimately just group and we are working with renewed vigor in the wake of the recent event that exposed inequity and racism in our society to turning this aspiration into action.

No commitment required for basic membership

No data rights required (being a member of an SC does not confer data rights

join a Rubin LSST Science Collaborations

Will Clarkson

SC coordinator

become a DP0 delegate

Rubin Community Science Team lead: Melissa Graham 

join the Community forum

Rubin Community Forum (Community.lsst.org) is available to everyone, and the posting of any and all Rubin/LSST-related questions is encouraged.

stay up to date with ls.st/dates