University of Delaware

Department of Physics and Astronomy

Biden School of Public Policy and Administration

Data  Science Institute

federica b. bianco

she/her

the LSST transient sky

Building an unprecedented catalog of Solar System Objects

LSST Science Drivers

Mapping the Milky Way and Local Volume

Probing Dark Energy and Dark Matter

Exploring the Transient Optical Sky

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

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

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
 

Rubin LSST Transients by the numbers

17B stars (x10) Ivezic+19​

~10k SuperLuminous Supernovae (from ~200)Villar+ 2018

~400 strongly lensed SN Ia (from 10) Ardense+24

~3.3M SN II 580k SN Ibc Hložek+20

~1M SNIa (z<0.5) 1M SNIa (z<2) Griz+24

~50 kilonovae (from 2) Setzer+19, Andreoni+19   (+ ToO)

> 10 Interstellar Objects fom 2....    ?)

Rubin LSST Transients by the numbers

17B stars (x10) Ivezic+19​

~10k SuperLuminous Supernovae (from ~200)Villar+ 2018

~400 strongly lensed SN Ia (from 10) Ardense+24

~3.3M SN II 580k SN Ibc Hložek+20

~1M SNIa (z<0.5) 1M SNIa (z<2) Griz+24

~50 kilonovae (from 2) Setzer+19, Andreoni+19   (+ ToO)

> 10 Interstellar Objects fom 2....    ?)

Rubin LSST Transients by the numbers

17B stars (x10) Ivezic+19​

~10k SuperLuminous Supernovae (from ~200)Villar+ 2018

~400 strongly lensed SN Ia (from 10) Ardense+24

~3.3M SN II 580k SN Ibc Hložek+20

~1M SNIa (z<0.5) 1M SNIa (z<2) Griz+24

~50 kilonovae (from 2) Setzer+19, Andreoni+19   (+ ToO)

> 10 Interstellar Objects fom 2....    ?)

Rubin LSST Transients by the numbers

17B stars (x10) Ivezic+19​

~10k SuperLuminous Supernovae (from ~200)Villar+ 2018

~400 strongly lensed SN Ia (from 10) Ardense+24

~3.3M SN II 580k SN Ibc Hložek+20

~1M SNIa (z<0.5) 1M SNIa (z<2) Griz+24

~50 kilonovae (from 2) Setzer+19, Andreoni+19   (+ ToO)

> 10 Interstellar Objects fom 2....    ?)

Rubin LSST Transients by the numbers

17B stars (x10) Ivezic+19​

~10k SuperLuminous Supernovae (from ~200)Villar+ 2018

~400 strongly lensed SN Ia (from 10) Ardense+24

~3.3M SN II 580k SN Ibc Hložek+20

~300k SNIa (z<0.3) ~800k SNIa (z<1) "well observed"Griz+24

~50 kilonovae (from 2) Setzer+19, Andreoni+19   (+ ToO)

> 10 Interstellar Objects fom 2....    ?)

Rubin LSST Transients by the numbers

17B stars (x10) Ivezic+19​

~10k SuperLuminous Supernovae (from ~200)Villar+ 2018

~400 strongly lensed SN Ia (from 10) Ardense+24

~3.3M SN II 580k SN Ibc Hložek+20

~300k SNIa (z<0.3) ~800k SNIa (z<1) "well observed"Griz+24

~50 kilonovae (from 2) Setzer+19, Andreoni+19   (+ ToO)

> 10 Interstellar Objects fom 2....    ?)

True Novelties!

Rubin LSST Transients by the numbers

17B stars (x10) Ivezic+19​

~10k SuperLuminous Supernovae (from ~200)Villar+ 2018

~400 strongly lensed SN Ia (from 10) Ardense+24

~3.3M SN II 580k SN Ibc Hložek+20

~300k SNIa (z<0.3) ~800k SNIa (z<1) "well observed"Griz+24

~50 kilonovae (from 2) Setzer+19, Andreoni+19   (+ ToO)

> 10 Interstellar Objects fom 2....    ?)

Exploring the Transient and Variable Optical Sky

LSST

data products

Data Products

data right holders only

world public!

10Million alerts per night!

Rubin LSST survey design

2017

80,000

Rubin LSST survey design

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

2019

80,000

Rubin LSST survey design

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

2023

80,000

Rubin LSST survey design

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

2024

80,000

Rubin LSST survey design

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

2024

2024

80,000

Current plan: rolling 8 out of the 10 years

Rubin ToO program

Riley Clarke, UDelware

Stars that flare ΔDCR

on the job market!

FASTlab Flash highlight

A community of practice funded on principles of Equity, Inclusivity, Cooperation

what's in a name?

The first ground-based national US observatory named after a woman, Dr. Vera C. Rubin 

An international community of practice built on principles of cooperation, equity, and solidarity

Rubin LSST Science Collaborations

Text

https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.04499 

Transietsand variabel stars SC

is a word I am borrowing from Margaret Atwood to describe the fact that the future is us. 

However loathsome or loving we are, so will we be. 

Whereas utopias are the stuff of dream dystopias are the stuff of nightmares, ustopias are what we create together when we are wide awake

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO3nY_u6hos

US-TOPIA

thank you!

University of Delaware

Department of Physics and Astronomy

Biden School of Public Policy and Administration

Data  Science Institute

federica bianco

Rubin Construction

Deputy Project Scientist

fbianco@udel.edu

https://slides.com/federicabianco/sambatransients2025

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

Time

Domain

Science

Static

Science

Alerts based

Catalog based

Deep stack

based

Deep stack

based