#rubin observatory

[skybluerambles]

This is what I’ve been working on for almost 10 years! And what inspired my custom Lego designs! It’s so cool (and also kinda weird) to finally have it at the observatory!

[skyblueinkart]

My Lego model of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory is complete! It has a spinning dome (and some fun little accessories) and I am very proud. You can check out @rubin_observatory on Instagram if you want to see photos of the real thing.

I designed this during my last couple trips to the observatory. I planned to take more progress shots but I had absolutely zero chill about assembling it once I had all the pieces. This thing is almost 2 pounds of solid brick and amazingly sturdy.

[thegreatseason]

Beautiful Objects

Vera C. Rubin Observatory

An astronomical observatory under construction on top of Cerro Pachón, a mountain in Northern Chile. Rubin Observatory will conduct a 10-year survey of the Southern Hemisphere sky with the goal of answering some of astronomers' biggest questions about the Universe.

Images will be recorded by a 3.2-gigapixel CCD imaging camera, the largest digital camera ever constructed. First light is expected on January 2025.

source: https://rubinobservatory.org/

[nicolae]

Vera C. Rubin Observatory detects its first asteroid

The detection of asteroids is an essential aspect of planetary defense and understanding the potential risks they pose to Earth. Astronomers use various methods to detect and track asteroids. Astronomers use telescopes on Earth to scan the night sky for moving objects. These telescopes capture images of celestial bodies, and by comparing multiple images taken over time, they can identify…

[xtruss]

The camera on the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, seen during final stages of completion at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Palo Alto, contains 189 individual sensors and will take photos at 3.2 gigapixels—the largest digital camera ever built.

Is There A 9th Planet Out There? We May Soon Find Out.

Starting in 2025 The Vera C. Rubin Observatory Will Increase the Number of Known Objects Circling the Sun by Roughly Tenfold, Spotting New Comets, Exotic Asteroids From Other Stars, and Perhaps Even the Elusive Planet Nine.

— By Robin George Andrews | Photographs By Christie Hemm Klok | January 09, 2024

Our solar system is home to wondrous worlds, mysterious moons, astounding asteroids, and curious comets. But despite myriad telescope surveys of the night sky, most of our celestial neighborhood remains unseen and unknown.

That’s about to change. Thanks to a revolutionary new telescope, huge swaths of the undiscovered solar system will finally come into view. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory (VRO), currently under construction atop the Cerro Pachón ridge in Chile, 8,700 feet up, is not merely going to advance the field of astronomy—it’s going to revolutionize it. A marvel of engineering, software, and scientific ingenuity, this machine has one overarching goal: to document the entire night sky.

Lead Engineer, Travis Lange, inspects the front of the VRO camera lens with a high powered flashlight, looking for dust. The heart of the new observatory, this advanced camera will image the entire Southern Hemisphere sky many times over.

This includes distant objects, from convulsing stars to cosmic explosions, but also the countless objects in the solar system that have eluded skygazers. “It’s going to be a quite complete catalogue of everything in the solar system out to and beyond Neptune,” says Mario Jurić, an astronomer at the University of Washington working with VRO.

The asteroid tally will almost immediately skyrocket. The first asteroid was discovered in 1801. Two centuries later, a million were known. VRO will double that in three to six months.

The observatory may even find the hypothetical Planet Nine, a large world that some astronomers believe is hiding at the solar system’s peripheries. “Probably within the first year we’re going to see if there’s something there or not,” says Pedro Bernardinelli, an astronomer at the University of Washington.

And VRO is set to spot dozens of interstellar objects—visiting entities that have been ejected from other star systems. With these exotic shards of space rock, “we can literally start to figure out what other planetary systems look like,” says Juríc.

Over the course of its ten-year survey, set to commence in 2025, VRO will give astronomers a new encyclopedia of the solar system. “And then we get to understand what that’s all telling us,” says Juríc—about the very origins and evolution of our galactic cradle.

“I think it’s going to rewrite the history books,” says Meg Schwamb, an astronomer at Queen’s University Belfast working with VRO.

Chile’s Almighty Eye

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, jointly funded by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy, is named after the famed astronomer who revealed the existence of dark matter—an as-yet-undetected substance binding stars and galaxies together. Designed to address a multitude of cosmic queries, the cutting-edge observatory is a beast of a scientific instrument.

“Everything is big about Rubin,” says Sandrine Thomas, the deputy director for VRO construction. “The telescope is superfast. The camera is huge and very precise. The detector is also extremely big. The number of pixels is gigantic.”

Most observatories have either a wide field of view, meaning they can see more of the sky at once, or a huge mirror, which allows more light to be gathered, revealing fainter and more distant objects. But thanks to its paradigm-shifting engineering, VRO has both. It will peruse the entire night sky viewable from the Southern Hemisphere countless times during its decade-long survey, seeing almost everything, almost everywhere.

“This is a once-in-a-generation leap,” says Bernardinelli.

A large airtight box holds filters for the VRO camera. Nitrogen continuously pumped into the chamber is dryer than natural air and prevents the glass from warping.

Beyond The Veil

Many of the worlds VRO will spot will be in the asteroid belt. “This is the mortar left over from planet formation,” says Schwamb.

The observatory will undoubtedly find many modestly sized asteroids orbiting close to Earth, the sort that have so far eluded asteroid-hunting surveys. That means VRO could find future Earth-impactors before they find us, so that we can attempt to avoid a catastrophic asteroid impact.

Other asteroids may be found drifting inside Earth’s orbit, perhaps as part of a hypothesized reservoir of space rocks swimming about close to Venus. And while VRO will populate the inner solar system, it is also set to reveal the architecture of the outer solar system for the first time.

As well as increasing the tally of moons belonging to Jupiter and Saturn (the famously ringed planet currently has 146 confirmed moons), VRO will be able to spy comets starting to effervesce further out than ever before. Apart from a few highly volatile elephantine comets, most of these far-ranging ice balls are not spotted until they approach the sunlit confines of the inner solar system, where they heat up and shed a trail of icy debris.

VRO may permit astronomers to fulfil a long-time dream: find a comet long before it plunges sunward for the first time in its existence. This would represent a pristine, unaltered record from the dawn of the solar system. With enough advance notice, astronomers could even chase it down before it starts cooking. “We’ll be able to send a spacecraft to get up close and personal,” says Schwamb.

Comets come from two places. The Oort Cloud, a hypothesized shell of icy worlds at an unfathomable distance from the sun, has never been directly seen—and VRO won’t change that. But the Kuiper Belt, a torus-shaped ring of gelid objects, including the dwarf planet Pluto, will have its portrait taken by VRO in considerable detail.

Currently, only a few thousand Kuiper Belt objects, or KBOs, have been identified. VRO is expected to find at least that many. The observations will reveal the true structure and contents of the icy belt, and it could also solve a great mystery about the solar system: “How many planets do we have?” says Schwamb.

Over the last decade, some astronomers have suggested that the peculiar orbits of objects at the solar system’s fringes means a Neptune-size planet is lurking somewhere out there, far beyond Pluto. Existing telescopes are highly unlikely to spot such a distant world—but VRO should find Planet Nine, if it exists.

“Imagine if, two years from now, we could say that there’s a new planet in the solar system,” says Bernardinelli. “That’s kind of exciting.”

Visitors From Beyond The Solar System

In 2017 astronomers detected something amazing: the very first interstellar object, 1I/ʻOumuamua, a thin asteroid or comet that had escaped the gravitational grip of another star. It moved into and then out of the solar system at remarkable speeds, giving scientists only a few days to study it. Then, in 2019 a second planetary tourist was found, the comet 2I/Borisov.

With just two known, scientists have very little information about the nature of such interstellar objects. They remind Schwamb of the corners of old maps that no seafarers had yet chronicled: “There be dragons,” she says.

Fortunately, VRO is projected to find a handful of new interstellar objects every year. These envoys from different star systems contain matter that was forged in stellar and planetary environments different from our solar system.

“They’re a sample of the planet formation process at stars all across the galaxy,” says Michele Bannister, an astronomer at the University in Canterbury in New Zealand.

The VRO’s sophisticated eye allows it to see objects in a range of colors, which means scientists can not only spot interstellar objects at considerable distances, but also get an idea of what they are made of. And while the VRO plays the role of the reconnaissance scout, scientists can use other telescopes with a smaller fields of view but better zoom-in capabilities to get closer looks at these alien time capsules.

“If we found one of these things as it was still approaching, and we had a year to observe it, that would be fantastic,” says Juríc.

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory sits beneath a twilight sky at its site in Chile. Rubin is being built to conduct the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). This survey will observe the entire visible southern sky every few nights over the course of a decade, capturing about 1,000 images every night. Rubinobs/NSF/Aura

Everlasting Change

Like all ground-based observatories, VRO will be hampered by the proliferation of low-flying, highly reflective satellites, particularly those belonging to SpaceX’s internet-providing Starlink megaconstellation. The roughly 4,500 Starlinks currently in orbit are already adding bright, white streaks to many astronomical images. SpaceX plans to launch tens of thousands more satellites in the future, which could mean 30 percent of all VRO images would be graffitied.

At present, there is no clear solution to this problem. “We will have to deal with it because we don’t have a choice,” says Bernardinelli. But while megaconstellation light pollution will mar some of VRO’s views, it won’t stop the observatory from being the discovery engine that astronomers have long dreamed about.

“The detail that will be revealed, this beautiful complexity that’s gonna show up—that will fine tune our ability to go from broad-brush histories of the solar system” to something more measured and precise, says Bannister. Currently, as scientists study the outer solar system’s structure, it’s like “seeing faces in clouds.” The VRO will mean that “we have Michelangelo’s David.”

[nasa]

Caution: Universe Work Ahead 🚧

We only have one universe. That’s usually plenty – it’s pretty big after all! But there are some things scientists can’t do with our real universe that they can do if they build new ones using computers.

The universes they create aren’t real, but they’re important tools to help us understand the cosmos. Two teams of scientists recently created a couple of these simulations to help us learn how our Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope sets out to unveil the universe’s distant past and give us a glimpse of possible futures.

Caution: you are now entering a cosmic construction zone (no hard hat required)!

This simulated Roman deep field image, containing hundreds of thousands of galaxies, represents just 1.3 percent of the synthetic survey, which is itself just one percent of Roman's planned survey. The full simulation is available here. The galaxies are color coded – redder ones are farther away, and whiter ones are nearer. The simulation showcases Roman’s power to conduct large, deep surveys and study the universe statistically in ways that aren’t possible with current telescopes.

One Roman simulation is helping scientists plan how to study cosmic evolution by teaming up with other telescopes, like the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. It’s based on galaxy and dark matter models combined with real data from other telescopes. It envisions a big patch of the sky Roman will survey when it launches by 2027. Scientists are exploring the simulation to make observation plans so Roman will help us learn as much as possible. It’s a sneak peek at what we could figure out about how and why our universe has changed dramatically across cosmic epochs.

This video begins by showing the most distant galaxies in the simulated deep field image in red. As it zooms out, layers of nearer (yellow and white) galaxies are added to the frame. By studying different cosmic epochs, Roman will be able to trace the universe's expansion history, study how galaxies developed over time, and much more.

As part of the real future survey, Roman will study the structure and evolution of the universe, map dark matter – an invisible substance detectable only by seeing its gravitational effects on visible matter – and discern between the leading theories that attempt to explain why the expansion of the universe is speeding up. It will do it by traveling back in time…well, sort of.

Seeing into the past

Looking way out into space is kind of like using a time machine. That’s because the light emitted by distant galaxies takes longer to reach us than light from ones that are nearby. When we look at farther galaxies, we see the universe as it was when their light was emitted. That can help us see billions of years into the past. Comparing what the universe was like at different ages will help astronomers piece together the way it has transformed over time.

This animation shows the type of science that astronomers will be able to do with future Roman deep field observations. The gravity of intervening galaxy clusters and dark matter can lens the light from farther objects, warping their appearance as shown in the animation. By studying the distorted light, astronomers can study elusive dark matter, which can only be measured indirectly through its gravitational effects on visible matter. As a bonus, this lensing also makes it easier to see the most distant galaxies whose light they magnify.

The simulation demonstrates how Roman will see even farther back in time thanks to natural magnifying glasses in space. Huge clusters of galaxies are so massive that they warp the fabric of space-time, kind of like how a bowling ball creates a well when placed on a trampoline. When light from more distant galaxies passes close to a galaxy cluster, it follows the curved space-time and bends around the cluster. That lenses the light, producing brighter, distorted images of the farther galaxies.

Roman will be sensitive enough to use this phenomenon to see how even small masses, like clumps of dark matter, warp the appearance of distant galaxies. That will help narrow down the candidates for what dark matter could be made of.

In this simulated view of the deep cosmos, each dot represents a galaxy. The three small squares show Hubble's field of view, and each reveals a different region of the synthetic universe. Roman will be able to quickly survey an area as large as the whole zoomed-out image, which will give us a glimpse of the universe’s largest structures.

Constructing the cosmos over billions of years

A separate simulation shows what Roman might expect to see across more than 10 billion years of cosmic history. It’s based on a galaxy formation model that represents our current understanding of how the universe works. That means that Roman can put that model to the test when it delivers real observations, since astronomers can compare what they expected to see with what’s really out there.

In this side view of the simulated universe, each dot represents a galaxy whose size and brightness corresponds to its mass. Slices from different epochs illustrate how Roman will be able to view the universe across cosmic history. Astronomers will use such observations to piece together how cosmic evolution led to the web-like structure we see today.

This simulation also shows how Roman will help us learn how extremely large structures in the cosmos were constructed over time. For hundreds of millions of years after the universe was born, it was filled with a sea of charged particles that was almost completely uniform. Today, billions of years later, there are galaxies and galaxy clusters glowing in clumps along invisible threads of dark matter that extend hundreds of millions of light-years. Vast “cosmic voids” are found in between all the shining strands.

Astronomers have connected some of the dots between the universe’s early days and today, but it’s been difficult to see the big picture. Roman’s broad view of space will help us quickly see the universe’s web-like structure for the first time. That’s something that would take Hubble or Webb decades to do! Scientists will also use Roman to view different slices of the universe and piece together all the snapshots in time. We’re looking forward to learning how the cosmos grew and developed to its present state and finding clues about its ultimate fate.

This image, containing millions of simulated galaxies strewn across space and time, shows the areas Hubble (white) and Roman (yellow) can capture in a single snapshot. It would take Hubble about 85 years to map the entire region shown in the image at the same depth, but Roman could do it in just 63 days. Roman’s larger view and fast survey speeds will unveil the evolving universe in ways that have never been possible before.

Roman will explore the cosmos as no telescope ever has before, combining a panoramic view of the universe with a vantage point in space. Each picture it sends back will let us see areas that are at least a hundred times larger than our Hubble or James Webb space telescopes can see at one time. Astronomers will study them to learn more about how galaxies were constructed, dark matter, and much more.

The simulations are much more than just pretty pictures – they’re important stepping stones that forecast what we can expect to see with Roman. We’ve never had a view like Roman’s before, so having a preview helps make sure we can make the most of this incredible mission when it launches.

Learn more about the exciting science this mission will investigate on Twitter and Facebook.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

[delta-orionis]

For the past couple of days, I've been tossing around the idea of an iterator OC who is focused around astronomy. I love astronomy, and there's a conspicuous lack of any information about it in Rain World, which I find pretty intriguing. (I made a post about some of my random theories here.) So, I started to think about what an iterator specifically designed to study astronomy might be like. I named them Three Stars Above Clouds (in reference to Orion's belt, because I can't help but put references to Orion in everything I do, I guess). I actually ended up having a lot of thoughts about them, which I'll detail below. (Warning, there's A Lot.)

Three Stars Above Clouds (TSAC) was designed and built by a splinter group of Ancients who believed the Solution to the Great Problem wouldn't be found deep underground, but in the sky. TSAC was created in order to help them collect data about the sky, house their institutions, and conduct research. They were built into a mountain range, where clouds are less likely to form and the air is thinner. (Real world observatories are often built on top of mountains or in arid places like deserts in an attempt to avoid interference from clouds and rain. You can't see the stars if they're hidden behind clouds, after all.)

Three Stars Above Clouds' city is home to several large observatories which keep a constant watch on the sky. I got the idea for TSAC in part from the currently-under-construction Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (also called the Vera C. Rubin Observatory). The LSST is designed to take ultra-high-definition pictures of the entire night sky every couple of nights, in order to monitor for changes. This data will be a treasure trove for astronomers, and can be used for anything from discovering new asteroids and rogue planets, to monitoring distant galaxies for supernovae. One problem that arises from this, however, is the sheer amount of data that this telescope will produce- it's way too much for any human to hope to be able to sift through. I imagine that the Ancients who built TSAC would run into a similar problem; TSAC's observatories generate colossal amounts of data, so a large part of TSAC's duties as an iterator are to sift through and analyze this data to find anything that might be useful in finding the Solution.

Three Stars Above Clouds is relatively isolated as an iterator. They are located at a much higher altitude than their peers, in the middle of a remote mountain range. Their citizens are also somewhat isolated from Ancient society at large, due to their fringe religious beliefs. (Due to the lack of anything astronomy or space-travel related in Rain World's lore, I think the Ancients either largely don't have an interest in studying astronomy, or it's considered taboo due to their religion's focus on ascension, as well as the subterranean Void Sea.)

As for Three Stars Above Clouds themself, they have a bit of a reputation for being a loner. Other iterators sometimes see them as obsessing over something pointless, because despite the vast amounts of data TSAC has collected, so far it's turned up nothing useful in terms of the Solution. However they are sometimes contacted by iterators who might be interested in their data, either for the purpose of research or just out of curiosity. TSAC is happy to talk about their personal research to anyone who is willing to listen.

Three Stars Above Clouds worked closely with their citizens while their city was still inhabited, and misses them deeply. Despite their citizens being gone, they continue with their sky surveys, partially because the desire to do so is hard-coded into their programming, and partially because it at least gives them something to do. Deep down, TSAC is convinced that someday they will come across something extraordinary among the stars.

In order to store the immense amounts of data generated by their observatories, TSAC's city and internal structure contain a wealth of data pearls, which has inevitably led to the amassing of a large Scavenger population both in and around their structure, who regularly raid TSAC's supply of pearls. However, due to TSAC's high altitude, their external structure and surrounding mountains are also home to large colonies of Vultures, which help control the Scavenger population, at the very least. TSAC is quite fond of Vultures for this reason.

The mountains are very cold, which means Three Stars Above Clouds' rain freezes almost immediately into snow and sleet, which falls down onto the surrounding mountains. As the glaciers and snowfall on these mountains melt, the water flows down the mountains into large rivers, and is collected in several dams at ground level. These dams are home to pumping stations which pump water back up into TSAC's can. TSAC's can is fed water through a vast array of underground pipes that snake underneath and through the mountains. The upkeep of these pipes is mostly automated, however, there are some issues that only an engineer can fix. With all of TSAC's engineers gone, their pipe network is extremely prone to failure due to its complexity. They've had a dam or two break in the past, and TSAC knows that it's only a matter of time before all of their dams break and they will lose their water supply for good.

Their void fluid filtration system is also similarly complex; mine shafts are scattered throughout the mountain range and reach deep underground to access the Void Sea. Even though TSAC's ancients don't think Void Fluid is the key to ascension, they still recognize its usefulness as a potent energy source.

These networks of tunnels, pipes, mines, and maintenance stations have become home to a wide range of creatures over the cycles, many seeking refuge from the cold. Maybe there's even a colony of subterranean Slugcats running around down there.

I've also made an annotated version of the drawing of TSAC's can; you can click on the alt text for transcriptions of my notes if you can't read my handwriting. One thing I forgot to note was the green lasers, those are Laser Guide Stars. (I just think they look cool.)

And here's a closer look at TSAC's city, because I'm pretty proud of the way it turned out. (I even snuck the LSST in there on the left, hehe.)

Aaaand I think that's everything! If I got any of the lore wrong, I apologize. Rain World's lore is pretty vague at times, and I tried to do the best with what I know. I also have a pretty strong grasp on astronomy, but not so much on climatology and geology, so if I got some of those things wrong as well, go easy on me, haha. X]

I will say, creating an iterator is an interesting thought experiment. You need to think about the effect they have on the surrounding environment, while keeping in mind that they're sentient and also have an entire city of people living on them that they need to help manage. Iterators are fascinating to me, and I love reading about other people's OCs and seeing the ways they're able to make them unique.

If you read this far, thank you for devoting some of your time to listening to me ramble. You get a gold star: ⭐⭐⭐

Edit: Here's a closeup of their in-game sprite as a reward for reading this far. Yippee

[mindblowingscience]

A new artificial intelligence algorithm programmed to hunt for potentially dangerous near-Earth asteroids has discovered its first space rock. The roughly 600-foot-wide (180 meters) asteroid has received the designation 2022 SF289, and is expected to approach Earth to within 140,000 miles (225,000 kilometers). That distance is shorter than that between our planet and the moon, which are on average, 238,855 miles (384,400 km) apart. This is close enough to define the rock as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA), but that doesn't mean it will impact Earth in the foreseeable future. The HelioLinc3D program, which found the asteroid, has been developed to help the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, currently under construction in Northern Chile, conduct its upcoming 10-year survey of the night sky by searching for space rocks in Earth's near vicinity. As such, the algorithm could be vital in giving scientists the heads up about space rocks on a collision course with Earth.

Continue Reading.

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory’s Unparalleled Vision Will Revolutionize Multi-Messenger Astronomy

Vera C. Rubin Observatory will unite coordinated observations of cosmic phenomena using the four messengers of the Universe

Photons, neutrinos, cosmic rays and gravitational waves all carry information about the Universe. Multi-messenger astronomy brings together these four signals to investigate astronomical events from multiple cosmic perspectives. With its sensitive camera and suite of filters, NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory will increase the population of known multi-messenger sources by obtaining crucial color information and localizing events for follow-up observations by other telescopes.

Astronomy has always relied on light to convey information about the Universe. But capturing photons is no longer the only technique scientists have for studying astronomical phenomena. Subatomic particles, such as neutrinos and those that are delivered in the form of cosmic rays, as well as gravitational waves — ripples in the fabric of space-time — are also messengers. Multi-messenger astronomy aims to combine the information from more than one of these signals to give researchers a deeper understanding of some of the most extreme events in the Universe. NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory will soon contribute to this emerging field by using its powerful camera and wide field of view to find faint multi-messenger sources and point other telescopes in the right direction for follow-up observations.

Rubin Observatory is jointly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science (DOE/SC). It is a Program of NSF NOIRLab, which, along with SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, will jointly operate Rubin.

Multi-messenger astronomy is an enhanced way of studying cosmic events that are predicted to emit more than one type of signal, such as stellar explosions, actively feeding black holes, and collisions between compact objects, to name just a few. Each messenger communicates unique information about the physical processes and energies involved. When a single source is observed using multiple signals the data can be combined to reach a deeper level of insight. “The result is more than the sum of its parts,” says Raffaella Margutti, associate professor at the University of California at Berkeley.

In addition to conducting a massive study of the southern sky called the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), Rubin will also perform ‘Target of Opportunity’ observations in quick response to alerts of potential multi-messenger sources. As the fastest-slewing large telescope in the world, Rubin can point to targets in as little as three minutes. Such observations will provide crucial information about an event’s optical — meaning wavelengths detectable by the human eye — properties, which in turn helps localize the event for follow-up by other telescopes.

However, in order to coordinate multiple telescopes capable of detecting the different types of messengers, scientists have to know where to look. Signals such as gravitational waves and neutrinos can point scientists in the general direction of a source, but in order to pinpoint its exact location you need light. This is where Rubin, equipped with the largest and most sensitive camera ever built for astronomy and astrophysics, will shine.

Margutti, whose studies focus specifically on finding the electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational wave events, explains, “Gravitational wave observatories can only tell you ‘look at this large area and search for something very faint.’ But you don't know exactly where to look.” Furthermore, the distance at which current observatories are capable of detecting gravitational waves can be far beyond the limit of what they can detect with photons, making it hard to observe an event with both messengers.

With its deep and wide capabilities, Rubin will help mitigate both of these challenges. “Rubin wins twice,” says Margutti. “Its strong light-collecting power and ability to scan large sections of sky mean it’s very sensitive to faint optical signals, like those we would be seeking from a gravitational wave source.”

So far only one multi-messenger gravitational wave event has been observed: a merger between two neutron stars that sent both space-time ripples and photons careening across the cosmos. Other events predicted to emit more than one messenger are black hole-neutron star and black hole-black hole mergers. “I would be super excited if we found photons coming from these types of mergers,” says Margutti. “Rubin is uniquely positioned to confirm or expand on the types of mergers that produce light.”

Rubin’s ability to detect faint sources will also be a game changer for studying neutrinos. Robert Stein, California Institute of Technology postdoctoral scholar, explains: “In neutrino science there are many different types of possible sources, but existing optical telescopes are only able to see the brightest, most unusual ones.” Based on the number of neutrinos arriving at detectors here on Earth, scientists believe there to be a vast population of neutrino sources at varying distances throughout the Universe. However, given the limits of existing telescopes, Stein estimates that only 5–10% of them are also detectable with photons. By bringing myriad faint sources to light for the very first time, Rubin could increase that to 50%.

“Neutrino science is in its infancy, so our list of possible sources is still emerging,” says Stein. “In ten or fifteen years we will likely discover that events we’ve already known about are also neutrino source populations.” 

Margutti and Stein are both confident that the overarching power of Rubin in the era of multi-messenger astronomy will be in uncovering the unexpected. As it covers vast swaths of the southern hemisphere sky, there’s no telling what Rubin’s unparalleled vision is going to reveal. “The best use of Rubin is as a discovery machine,” says Margutti. Stein echoes a similar sentiment, saying, “I hope to learn what new types of sources we should investigate next. If Rubin could give us that clarity, and I believe it will, that would be amazing.”

More information

The NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory is a joint initiative of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of Energy (DOE). Its primary mission is to carry out the Legacy Survey of Space and Time, providing an unprecedented data set for scientific research supported by both agencies. Rubin is operated jointly by NSF NOIRLab and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC). NOIRLab is managed for NSF by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) and SLAC is operated for DOE by Stanford University. France provides key support to the construction and operations of Rubin Observatory through contributions from CNRS/IN2P3. Additional contributions from a number of international organizations and teams are acknowledged.

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 to promote the progress of science. NSF supports basic research and people to create knowledge that transforms the future.

U.S. center for ground-based optical-infrared astronomy, operates the International Gemini Observatory (a facility of NSF, NRC–Canada, ANID–Chile, MCTIC–Brazil, MINCyT–Argentina, and KASI–Republic of Korea), Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), the Community Science and Data Center (CSDC), and Vera C. Rubin Observatory (in cooperation with DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory). It is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with NSF and is headquartered in Tucson, Arizona. The astronomical community is honored to have the opportunity to conduct astronomical research on I’oligam Du’ag (Kitt Peak) in Arizona, on Maunakea in Hawai‘i, and on Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachón in Chile. We recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that these sites have to the Tohono O’odham Nation, to the Native Hawaiian community, and to the local communities in Chile, respectively.

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is a vibrant multiprogram laboratory that explores how the Universe works at the biggest, smallest, and fastest scales and invents powerful tools used by scientists around the globe. With research spanning particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology, materials, chemistry, bio- and energy sciences and scientific computing, SLAC helps solve real-world problems and advance the interests of the nation.

SLAC is operated by Stanford University for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time.

IMAGE: This illustration depicts a compact merger event that is emitting three multi-messenger signals: photons, neutrinos and gravitational waves. Cosmic rays, made up of high-energy particles, come from other distant sources throughout space and are deflected and neutralized by Earth's atmosphere and magnetic fields. Multi-messenger astronomy aims to combine the information from more than one of these signals to give researchers a deeper understanding of some of the most extreme events in the Universe. NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory will soon contribute to this emerging field by using its powerful camera and wide field of view to find faint multi-messenger sources and point other telescopes in the right direction for follow-up observations.  Alt text: Conceptual illustration of a multi-messenger astrophysical event. In the top left, two neutron stars are colliding in a bright blue burst of energy. The collision emits several different types of signals, which are being detected by different telescopes and facilities illustrated on Earth in the lower right. Gravitational waves are represented by bright and dark bands spiraling outward from the colliding neutron stars. Subatomic particles called neutrinos radiate from the collision as dashed lines, and light radiates as squiggly lines. A meandering, looping solid line that comes from somewhere else beyond the collision represents a cosmic ray, which expands into a fan-shaped spray at the Earth’s atmosphere. Credit: Rubin Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Marenfeld

[winterpinetrees]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY VERA RUBIN!

Born Vera Florence Cooper on July 23rd 1928, died in 2016.

Realized that spiral galaxies were rotating too quickly, and would have spun themselves apart at their previously observed masses. This was the first major evidence for “dark matter”, or in other words, matter that can only be observed by its gravity, not the way it interacts with light.

(Because a lot of astronomy is the study of light, dark matter is nearly invisible. Inconvenient.)

Made other galactic discoveries too, but nothing as groundbreaking.

Raised four children while also getting her PhD and working as a new scientist in a sexist field.

Never got a Nobel prize (boo) but she did get this observatory named after her…

(8.4 meter diameter! surveying the entire Southern sky! pretty neat. It’s not completely done yet.)

In conclusion here’s her Wikipedia page for a less tumblresque overview.

[posttexasstressdisorder]

Science, bitches!

[skyblueinkart]

I realized I never posted this custom Lego design I made about a year ago. It’s of the LSST Camera (the project I’m working on) installed on one of its integration stands. I had a lot of fun figuring out how to get things to look right and actually move like the real stand. The Camera can actually be removed and disassembled, but the model isn’t quite sturdy enough to do that on the regular (which is sad). If you’re interested you can dig through @slac_lab and @rubin_observatory (on Instagram) for more photos of the real Camera.

[mountainsatellite]

Dr Vera Rubin finds her observatory acceptable

[sciencespies]

The time-lapse telescope that will transform our view of the universe

https://sciencespies.com/space/the-time-lapse-telescope-that-will-transform-our-view-of-the-universe/

The time-lapse telescope that will transform our view of the universe

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory will scan the whole southern sky every three nights. From short-lived supernovae to alien megastructures, here are some of the fleeting cosmic phenomena it could capture

Space 24 August 2022

By Stuart Clark

Gilles and Cecilie

IN 1967, astronomer Jocelyn Bell Burnell was searching the night sky for quasars, super-bright sources of light in the centre of some galaxies, when she spotted something unusual. It was a pulsing radio signal from space that seemed too regular to have a natural source. With her supervisor Antony Hewish, she half-jokingly dubbed it LGM-1 – short for little green men.

After finding more of these signals, they turned out to be coming from pulsars, dense, rapidly rotating stars that send regular bursts of energy our way. No little green men, after all. But the discovery demonstrated that astronomers need an open mind.

Now, this is truer than ever. In July 2023, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile will start studying the universe. It will scan the entire southern sky in an unbelievably rapid three nights, then start over. For 330 nights a year, over 10 years, Rubin will produce the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). It will change how we see the universe, especially our view of the mysterious objects that are pulsing, blipping or otherwise changing in unexpected ways.

Such signals are buried in a tapestry of electromagnetic waves that hurtles our way every night. Until now, we could only unpick the most obvious of threads. But armed with Rubin’s telescope and the power of artificial intelligence, we will see more detail than ever before. Some of it will help us unravel current mysteries, while other aspects will be entirely unexpected. The next time someone writes “LGM” next to a strange signal, they might not be doing it with their tongue in their cheek. …

#Space

[spacenutspod]

With ‘Thousand Sails,’ China joins the race to fill up Low Earth Orbit with mega-satellite constellations. It’s getting crowded up there in Low Earth orbit (LEO). By now, flocks of Starlinks have become a familiar sight, and the bane of astrophotographers as the ‘vermin of the skies.’ Now, several new competitors have joined the fray, with more waiting in the wings. Perhaps, you’ve seen one of these curious-looking ‘satellite trains,’ and wondered what they were. Certainly, the advent of satellite trains courtesy of Starlink have added to the annals of purported UFO videos shot via smartphone across YouTube. Now, more agencies worldwide are getting into the game in 2024, assuring that the next ‘star’ you wish on at dusk may, in fact, be an artificial satellite. Approaching An Artificial Sky Streaks and trails due to the increasing number of Starlinks in orbit have also become a standard feature in modern deep sky images. While techniques to remove these have been pioneered by astrophotographers, these will continue to impact deep sky astronomy. This impact extends to sky surveys soon set to come online such as the Vera Rubin Observatory, set to see first light early next year in 2025. The first batch of Thousand Sails satellites in orbit, shortly after launch. Credit: Nick James. SpaceX has implemented mitigation plans in response, including use of sun visors on first generation satellites, diffuse ‘dielectric mirror’ material on newer Version 2 (V2) platforms, and angling solar arrays. These have seen some success. Certainly, spotters have noted that the new Version 2’s have a bluer tint, and seem to shine at magnitude +7 once they’re boosted into their respective orbital slots. This is near the +7 magnitude threshold called for by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Radio noise from these new communications satellite constellations is also an issue that astronomers now have to contend with. LOFAR (The Netherlands Institute for Astronomy’s Low Frequency Array) notes that “new observations with the LOFAR radio telescope…have shown that the second generation ‘V2-mini’ Starlink satellites emit up to 32 brighter unintended radio waves than satellites from the previous generation.” Enter China’s ‘Thousand Sails’ Initiative China also recently joined the competition in LEO, with the launch of a Long March-6 rocket from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center with 18 satellites for Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology (SSST). This is part of the company’s ‘Thousand Sails’ initiative. The first batch of Thousand Sails satellites head to orbit. Credit: CNSA. Dubbed China’s answer to Starlink, This will see an initial 1,296 satellites for the constellation placed in orbit by 2027. The company also has plans to expand the network to 12,000 satellites into the 2030s. This first batch went into a polar (sun-synchronous) orbit, and the resulting satellite train was spotted in orbit shortly after launch. The Long March 6A booster fuel dump from the first Thousand Sails deployment, shortly after launch. Credit: Dan Bush/Missouri Skies. And there’s more in store. China also launched a Long March 6 rocket on September 5th, with 10 new satellites for Geely Group Automotive. These are part of the company’s effort to build a communication network for autonomous vehicles. An artist’s impression of Geely Group satellites in orbit. Credit: Geely Group. As a follow-on this month, China also launched a Long March-6 rocket on October 15th with another batch of 18 satellites headed into a polar orbit. This group is also part of the Thousand Sails constellation. Satellite spotters have already tracked these in orbit, with an estimated brightness of up the +4th magnitude when near the zenith on a visible pass. Keep in mind, China isn’t beholden to any obligations to mitigate the impact that satellite constellations might have on the night sky…nor do any formal international standards exist. More Mega Satellite Constellations to Come Not to be outdone, SpaceX is putting up more than just Starlink. Last month, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket on September 12th, with the first five Bluebird satellites. These are ASTMobile’s follow-on to the BlueWalker-3 test satellite, still in orbit. With a phased-array antenna 10-meters across when deployed, BlueWalker-3 reaches magnitude 0. The company plans to put 110 of these potentially brilliant Bluebirds in orbit over the next few years. A Bluewalker antenna unfolded on Earth. Credit: ASTMobile. OneWeb is also still putting satellites in orbit. The ongoing Russia-Ukraine War has forced the company to forego Soyuz launches. Instead, OneWeb now relies on competitor SpaceX to get into orbit. The OneWeb satellite constellation currently hosts 660 satellites in orbit, right around the initial target number set by the company Eutelsat-OneWeb for nominal operation. The company began offering services through residential providers last year, including Hughesnet, Viasat and ironically, Starlink. Starlink’s current status is 7,125 satellites in orbit, with 23 more planned tonight with the launch of Starlink Group 6-61 from the Cape. 12,000 satellites in orbit are planned for in the coming years, and the constellation could extend to a total of 34,400 satellites in future years. Not to be outdone, the Unites States’ Department of Defense is putting its own dedicated satellite constellation in space. Dubbed Starshield, the network already has 73 satellites in orbit, and a total of more than a 100 are planned. As expected, the DoD is already shaping up to be Starlink’s (and SpaceX’s) biggest customer. Hunting Satellite Trains Other bright reflectors are making themselves seen in the night sky as well. ACS-3 (the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System) was launched this past April on a Rocket Lab Electron rocket. The mission successfully unfurled this summer on August 29th. ACS-3 is the latest in a batch of satellites to attempt to test solar sail technologies in orbit. Mission planners could use this tech on future missions for maneuvering, propulsion or reentry disposal. Previous missions, including NanoSail-D2 and Planetary Society’s Light Sail have struggled with this tech, demonstrating just how difficult it’s turning out to be. ACS-3 is definitely tumbling: we’ve seen it flare up to 0 magnitude (as bright as Vega) on a good pass. This seems to be very angle dependent. You can track these missions and more on Heavens-Above. The leaders for the first two batches of respective Thousand Sail groups are 2024-140A and 2024-145A. Plus, Heavens-Above tracks Starlink batches (which are once again going up at a furious rate) on a dedicated page. We saw the most recently launched Starlink Group Batch 8-19 this past weekend… and that was from under the bright lights of downtown Bristol, Tennessee. The Promise and Peril of Mega-Sat Constellations To be sure, we’re a huge consumer of roaming WiFi. If we can continue our career and online exploits from a remote basecamp, then that’s a good thing… but there also needs to be oversight when it comes to what we’re collectively doing to our night sky as a resource. Are we headed towards a future where artificial stars in the night sky outnumber real ones? Perhaps, the best thing that amateur satellite trackers can do now, is to chronicle what’s happening, as the Anthropocene era leaves its mark on a brave new night sky. The post China’s ‘Thousand Sails’ Joins Starlink as the Latest Mega-Satellite Constellation in Orbit appeared first on Universe Today.

[xtruss]

The camera on the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, seen during final stages of completion at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Palo Alto, contains 189 individual sensors and will take photos at 3.2 gigapixels—the largest digital camera ever built.

Is There A 9th Planet Out There? We May Soon Find Out.

Starting in 2025 the Vera C. Rubin Observatory will increase the number of known objects circling the sun by roughly tenfold, spotting new comets, exotic asteroids from other stars, and perhaps even the elusive Planet Nine.

— By Robin George Andrews | Photographs By Christie Hemm Klok | January 9, 2024

Our solar system is home to wondrous worlds, mysterious moons, astounding asteroids, and curious comets. But despite myriad telescope surveys of the night sky, most of our celestial neighborhood remains unseen and unknown.

That’s about to change. Thanks to a revolutionary new telescope, huge swaths of the undiscovered solar system will finally come into view. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory (VRO), currently under construction atop the Cerro Pachón ridge in Chile 🇨🇱, 8,700 feet up, is not merely going to advance the field of astronomy—it’s going to revolutionize it. A marvel of engineering, software, and scientific ingenuity, this machine has one overarching goal: to document the entire night sky.

Lead Engineer, Travis Lange, inspects the front of the VRO camera lens with a high powered flashlight, looking for dust. The heart of the new observatory, this advanced camera will image the entire Southern Hemisphere sky many times over.

This includes distant objects, from convulsing stars to cosmic explosions, but also the countless objects in the solar system that have eluded skygazers. “It’s going to be a quite complete catalogue of everything in the solar system out to and beyond Neptune,” says Mario Jurić, an astronomer at the University of Washington working with VRO.

The asteroid tally will almost immediately skyrocket. The first asteroid was discovered in 1801. Two centuries later, a million were known. VRO will double that in three to six months.

The observatory may even find the hypothetical Planet Nine, a large world that some astronomers believe is hiding at the solar system’s peripheries. “Probably within the first year we’re going to see if there’s something there or not,” says Pedro Bernardinelli, an astronomer at the University of Washington.

And VRO is set to spot dozens of interstellar objects—visiting entities that have been ejected from other star systems. With these exotic shards of space rock, “we can literally start to figure out what other planetary systems look like,” says Juríc.

Over the course of its ten-year survey, set to commence in 2025, VRO will give astronomers a new encyclopedia of the solar system. “And then we get to understand what that’s all telling us,” says Juríc—about the very origins and evolution of our galactic cradle.

“I think it’s going to rewrite the history books,” says Meg Schwamb, an astronomer at Queen’s University Belfast working with VRO.

Chile’s 🇨🇱 Almighty Eye

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, jointly funded by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy, is named after the famed astronomer who revealed the existence of dark matter—an as-yet-undetected substance binding stars and galaxies together. Designed to address a multitude of cosmic queries, the cutting-edge observatory is a beast of a scientific instrument.

“Everything is big about Rubin,” says Sandrine Thomas, the deputy director for VRO construction. “The telescope is superfast. The camera is huge and very precise. The detector is also extremely big. The number of pixels is gigantic.”

Most observatories have either a wide field of view, meaning they can see more of the sky at once, or a huge mirror, which allows more light to be gathered, revealing fainter and more distant objects. But thanks to its paradigm-shifting engineering, VRO has both. It will peruse the entire night sky viewable from the Southern Hemisphere countless times during its decade-long survey, seeing almost everything, almost everywhere.

“This is a once-in-a-generation leap,” says Bernardinelli.

A large airtight box holds filters for the VRO camera. Nitrogen continuously pumped into the chamber is dryer than natural air and prevents the glass from warping.

Beyond the Veil

Many of the worlds VRO will spot will be in the asteroid belt. “This is the mortar left over from planet formation,” says Schwamb.

The observatory will undoubtedly find many modestly sized asteroids orbiting close to Earth, the sort that have so far eluded asteroid-hunting surveys. That means VRO could find future Earth-impactors before they find us, so that we can attempt to avoid a catastrophic asteroid impact.

Other asteroids may be found drifting inside Earth’s orbit, perhaps as part of a hypothesized reservoir of space rocks swimming about close to Venus. And while VRO will populate the inner solar system, it is also set to reveal the architecture of the outer solar system for the first time.

As well as increasing the tally of moons belonging to Jupiter and Saturn (the famously ringed planet currently has 146 confirmed moons), VRO will be able to spy comets starting to effervesce further out than ever before. Apart from a few highly volatile elephantine comets, most of these far-ranging ice balls are not spotted until they approach the sunlit confines of the inner solar system, where they heat up and shed a trail of icy debris.

VRO may permit astronomers to fulfil a long-time dream: find a comet long before it plunges sunward for the first time in its existence. This would represent a pristine, unaltered record from the dawn of the solar system. With enough advance notice, astronomers could even chase it down before it starts cooking. “We’ll be able to send a spacecraft to get up close and personal,” says Schwamb.

Comets come from two places. The Oort Cloud, a hypothesized shell of icy worlds at an unfathomable distance from the sun, has never been directly seen—and VRO won’t change that. But the Kuiper Belt, a torus-shaped ring of gelid objects, including the dwarf planet Pluto, will have its portrait taken by VRO in considerable detail.

Currently, only a few thousand Kuiper Belt objects, or KBOs, have been identified. VRO is expected to find at least that many. The observations will reveal the true structure and contents of the icy belt, and it could also solve a great mystery about the solar system: “How many planets do we have?” says Schwamb.

Over the last decade, some astronomers have suggested that the peculiar orbits of objects at the solar system’s fringes means a Neptune-size planet is lurking somewhere out there, far beyond Pluto. Existing telescopes are highly unlikely to spot such a distant world—but VRO should find Planet Nine, if it exists.

“Imagine if, two years from now, we could say that there’s a new planet in the solar system,” says Bernardinelli. “That’s kind of exciting.”

Visitors From Beyond the Solar System

In 2017 astronomers detected something amazing: the very first interstellar object, 1I/ʻOumuamua, a thin asteroid or comet that had escaped the gravitational grip of another star. It moved into and then out of the solar system at remarkable speeds, giving scientists only a few days to study it. Then, in 2019 a second planetary tourist was found, the comet 2I/Borisov.

With just two known, scientists have very little information about the nature of such interstellar objects. They remind Schwamb of the corners of old maps that no seafarers had yet chronicled: “There be dragons,” she says.

Fortunately, VRO is projected to find a handful of new interstellar objects every year. These envoys from different star systems contain matter that was forged in stellar and planetary environments different from our solar system.

“They’re a sample of the planet formation process at stars all across the galaxy,” says Michele Bannister, an astronomer at the University in Canterbury in New Zealand 🇳🇿.

The VRO’s sophisticated eye allows it to see objects in a range of colors, which means scientists can not only spot interstellar objects at considerable distances, but also get an idea of what they are made of. And while the VRO plays the role of the reconnaissance scout, scientists can use other telescopes with a smaller fields of view but better zoom-in capabilities to get closer looks at these alien time capsules.

“If we found one of these things as it was still approaching, and we had a year to observe it, that would be fantastic,” says Juríc.

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory sits beneath a twilight sky at its site in Chile. Rubin is being built to conduct the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). This survey will observe the entire visible southern sky every few nights over the course of a decade, capturing about 1,000 images every night. Rubinobs/NSF/AURA

Everlasting Change

Like all ground-based observatories, VRO will be hampered by the proliferation of low-flying, highly reflective satellites, particularly those belonging to SpaceX’s internet-providing Starlink megaconstellation. The roughly 4,500 Starlinks currently in orbit are already adding bright, white streaks to many astronomical images. SpaceX plans to launch tens of thousands more satellites in the future, which could mean 30 percent of all VRO images would be graffitied.

At present, there is no clear solution to this problem. “We will have to deal with it because we don’t have a choice,” says Bernardinelli. But while megaconstellation light pollution will mar some of VRO’s views, it won’t stop the observatory from being the discovery engine that astronomers have long dreamed about.

“The detail that will be revealed, this beautiful complexity that’s gonna show up—that will fine tune our ability to go from broad-brush histories of the solar system” to something more measured and precise, says Bannister. Currently, as scientists study the outer solar system’s structure, it’s like “seeing faces in clouds.” The VRO will mean that “we have Michelangelo’s David.”