The upcoming telescope is expected to discover millions of hidden solar system objects
The new observatory in Chile’s high-above and perched high in the Andes is about to blow away the covers of our solar system, and scientists say it will be like converting from black and white TV to 4K colors.
The National Science Foundation and Department of Energy project, Vera C. Rubin Persvatory, is scheduled to begin operations later this year.
Using the largest digital camera ever made digital camera and sweeping ultra-sensitive telescope, the observatory is expected to discover millions of previously unknown asteroids, comets and other planets, some of which adventures uncomfortable approaching our own planet.
Now, researchers led by Meg Schwamb of Queen’s University in Belfast have developed an open source software program Sorcha that predicts what Rubin might find. Papers describing software and related predictions are available on the preprint server ARXIV.
The team estimated that Rubin tripled the number of known near-Earth objects (NEOs) between about 38,000 and 127,000, detected ten times more than the current classification, ten times more than the current classification, and provided colorful, detailed observations of over 5 million major belt asteroids (up to about 14 million).
“With this data, we will be able to update textbooks for the formation of the solar system and greatly improve our ability to discover asteroids that may threaten Earth and potentially deflect Earth,” said Mario Juric, a member of the team, astronomer at the University of Washington, during the university release.
Sorcha modeled the current structure of the solar system and then projected what Rubin might have seen based on planned observations. This is Rubin’s first end-to-end simulator, which means it will produce expectations from simulated photons from distant sources to those from expected scientifically.
The secret weapon of the Rubin Observatory is its 3.2 Giapixel LSST camera, which can scan about 45 times the area of a full moon per night. In less than a week, the camera can survey the entire night sky, and over the next decade, it will generate a cosmic delay, including 20 night data.
Rubin’s data will help scientists piece together how our solar system forms and develops. The predicted statistics are amazing: 127,000 NEOs, 109,000 Jupiter Trojans, 37,000 distant kuiper objects, and more. Rubin will find their color and motion, revealing spin rate, surface type, and more. These observations, in turn, will help space agencies and scientists land on the next observation target.
Sorcha code along with simulated sky maps and track animations are now found on Sorcha.Space, so researchers can prepare for LSST data. The first public image of Rubin’s “First View” event will be revealed on June 23.
