Rubin Observatory

Site: Cerro Pachon, Chile

Funding: US NSF + DOE

Status: final phases of construction - completion expected 2023

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 and produce 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

single image depth ~24

10-year stack image depth ~26

image resolution 0.2'' (seeing limited)

18,000 sq degrees 

839 images over 10 years in 6 filters

2-3 images per night

each fields reobserved within ~days

5 fields observed to higher cadence and more images

survey specification

~25.9, 26.8, 26.8, 26.3, 25.6, 24.8

~56, 74, 184, 187, 166, 171

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

SDSS

LSST-like HSC composite

http://faculty.washington.edu/ivezic/talks/NASAseminar.pdf

ls.st/srd

*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.

ls.st/srd

http://faculty.washington.edu/ivezic/talks/NASAseminar.pdf

*pstn-054.lsst.io

Rubin by the numbers

~1000 images per night

10M alerts per night (5sigma changes)

17B stars 30B galaxies Ivezic+19

∼200 quadruply-lensed quasars Minghao+19

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

>10 interstellar objects

~10k SuperLuminous Supernovae Villar+ 2018

~ 50k Tidal Disruption Events Brickman+ 2020

~10 million QSO Mary Loli+21

~1000 SNe every night in the LSST sky

September 2016

Fabruary 2020

May 2022

November 2022

May 2022

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
 

Comcam at the summit

3.2 Gigapixel camera 

378 4K ultra-high-definition TV

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

Rubin ugrizy filters

Summer 2021

𝑢 (left) and 𝑦 band (right) magnitude corrections associated with read-noise, QE, and vignetting effects for each amplifier in the CCD plane. 

0.4

- 0.4

*pstn-054.lsst.io

1.2m AuxTel:

running since 2022

LOVE: LSST Operations Visualization Environment

ls.st/dates

ls.st/dates

First data release 3y from now

LSST

data products

Data Products

world public!

Rubin Observatory LSST 

data right holders only

Time

Domain

Science

Static

Science

Alerts based

Catalog based

Deep stack

based

Deep stack

based

Time

Domain

Science

Static

Science

Alerts based

Catalog based

Deep stack

based

Time

Domain

Science

Static

Science

AGN

STRONG

LENSING

50M+ AGNs to z~7.5

variability, microlensing, binaries

cosmography from Lens Time Delays

calibration of cluster mass function with with S+W Lensing

resolved high z galaxy properties

slide: Leanne Guy

sky data

LSST IN-KIND PROGRAM

LSSTdata rights are open to US and Chilean scientists

International organizations can acquire data rights via in-kind contributions

Data rights are awarded to PIs and their team (5 ppl per team)

~80 Italian PIs w 26 in-kind contributions

LSST IN-KIND PROGRAM

LSSTdata rights are open to US and Chilean scientists

International organizations can acquire data rights via in-kind contributions

Data rights are awarded to PIs and their team (5 ppl per team)

~80 Italian PIs w 26 in-kind contributions

• The Son of X-Shooter contribution to Rubin: a set of 2,000 spectra for Machine Learning light curve classification (Campana)
• Directable SW contribution for the AGN SC: Simulations of high-z AGNs and galaxies in the LSST survey (Buongiorno)
• Non-Directable SW contribution for the TVS SC: A Bridge from Gamma to Optical (Antonelli)
• Access to Telescope Time for the US/C for follow-up (Schipani)
• Directable SW contribution for the Galaxies SC: Tools for the measurement of surface brightness fluctuations on LSST data (Cantiello - w Hezra)
• AND MORE

Rubin LSST survey design

Rubin LSST survey design

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

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 Observatory's Survey Strategy Performance for Tidal Disruption Events
Bricman, van Velzen, Nicholl, and Gomboc ApJS 268 13

Optimizing Cadences with Realistic Light-curve Filtering for Serendipitous Kilonova Discovery with Vera Rubin Observatory
Igor Andreoni et al ApJS 258 5

Target-of-opportunity Observations of Gravitational-wave Events with Vera C. Rubin Observatory
Igor Andreoni et al 2022 ApJS 260 18

Rubin LSST survey design

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

Over 500 survey strategy simulations have been vetted by the community for science throughput

Observing Strategy team lead: Lynne Jones

The minutes-second-subsecond Universe

The rotation, pulsation, and local accretion dynamics of these compact stellar remnants tends to occur on timescales ranging from seconds to milliseconds. Their extreme densities also makes them an excellent testing ground for nuclear, quantum, and gravitational physics.

Thomas and Kahn, 2018

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

Rubin LSST survey design

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

based on 2017 LSST simulations

Eric C. Bellm et al 2022 ApJS 258 13

Igor Andreoni et al 2022 ApJS 258 5

Rubin LSST survey design

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

based on 2017 LSST simulations

Igor Andreoni et al 2022 ApJS 258 5

2017 simulations: between 3 and 32 KN can be identified (~300 detected)

Eric C. Bellm et al 2022 ApJS 258 13

Rubin LSST survey design

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

newer simulations ->

Igor Andreoni et al 2022 ApJS 258 5

2017 simulations: between 3 and 32 KN can be identified (~300 detected)

2023 simulations: 50% improvement

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

26.8

29.1

28.6

26.8

Rubin LSST survey design

(current plan: the Deep Drilling Fields)

700       N visits.     1200   

r

r

COSMOS

Euclid DF-S

Rubin LSST survey design

(current plan: 3% of the LSST time devoted to ToO)

Marshall et al. 2017

Margutti et al. 2018

Cowperthwaite et al. 2018

Mortersen et al. 2019

Kilonovae in LSST

within and beyond ToO

Marshall et al. 2017

Margutti et al. 2018

Cowperthwaite et al. 2018

Mortersen et al. 2019

Kilonovae in LSST

within and beyond ToO

just submitted!

Kilonovae in LSST

within and beyond ToO

Marshall et al. 2017

Margutti et al. 2018

Cowperthwaite et al. 2018

Mortersen et al. 2019

just submitted!

The LSST@europe series

has been exploring synergies with European missions and surveys

LSST@Europe6 - 2024 La Palma-  Spain

Synergy and Survey coordination

https://ls.st/-co

Synergy and Survey coordination

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 University of Illinois, IAIFI fellow 2023

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

Pies in the LSST sky

AILE: the first AI-based platform for the detection and study of Light Echoes

YOLO3 + "attention" mechanism

precision 80% at 70% recall with a training set of 19 light echo examples! 

Xiaolong Li

LSSTC Catalyst Fellow 2023

UDelaware->John Hopkins

Atmosphere-aided studies

dM                 energy

dDCR               color                temperature

Riley Clarke, Davenport, Gizis, Bianco, in prep

Riley Clarke

Will we discover new physics?

A comparative assessment of LSST potential surveys in the discovery of unknown unknowns

Galarza, Bianco et al. 2021

Xiaolong Li

Li et al. 2021

Rubin Operations Research Inclusion team

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

Rubin Observatory LSST 

MMA and LEOsats

Iridium satellite number 35 lit up the predawn sky west of Boston at 5 a.m. EST on February 1, 1998,  Sky & Telescope

Satellite flares

Time domain Rubin LSST science

can be mitigated:

- orientation of satellite,

- directing flares away from observer

- knowing coordinates to associate them to alerts

if not mitigate there would be bogus alerts and images ruined by saturating flares

Hainaut & Williams 2020

https://arxiv.org/abs/2003.01992