As the Vera C. Rubin Observatory showcases its stunning first images, researchers across the UK, including a professor at the University of Central Lancashire, are celebrating their role in the most ambitious sky survey to date.
The Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time, or LSST, will reveal the secrets of the cosmos over the next decade, creating an ultra-wide ultra-high-definition time-lapse record of our Universe.
Enabled by an investment of £23 million from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), UK astronomers and software developers have been preparing the hardware and software needed to analyse the petabytes of data that the survey will produce to enable ground-breaking science that will enhance our understanding of the cosmos.
The UK is the second largest international contributor to the multinational project, putting UK astronomers at the forefront when it comes to exploiting this unique window on the Universe.
The UK is also playing a significant role in the management and processing of the unprecedented amounts of data that Rubin will produce. The UK will host one of three international data facilities and process around 1.5 million images, capturing around 10 billion stars and galaxies. When complete, the full 10-year survey is expected to rack up as much as 500 petabytes of data. The UK’s science portal for the international community is capable of connecting around 1,500 astronomers with UK Digital Research Infrastructure to support the exploitation of this uniquely rich and detailed view of the Universe.
I am particularly looking forward to the view of the inner Milky Way that it will provide, which we have been preparing for for almost 20 years– University of Central Lancashire Professor of Astrophysics Victor Debattista
Conceived in the 1990s, Rubin is the first of its kind: its mirror design, camera size and sensitivity, telescope speed, and computing infrastructure are each in an entirely new category. Over the next 10 years, Rubin will perform the Legacy Survey of Space and Time using the LSST Camera and the Simonyi Survey Telescope. By repeatedly scanning the sky for 10 years, the observatory will deliver a treasure trove of discoveries: asteroids and comets, pulsating stars, and supernova explosions. Science operations are expected to start towards the end of 2025.
University of Central Lancashire Professor of Astrophysics Victor Debattista has been involved in this ground-breaking work and at one point was leading the UK’s Bulge Science Working Group. He said: “The Vera C. Rubin Observatory will enable a huge diversity of research ranging from the Solar System to the Universe at large. I am particularly looking forward to the view of the inner Milky Way that it will provide, which we have been preparing for for almost 20 years.
“My work has been focussing on how the Observatory helps us understand how the Milky Way formed by providing models that predict how the ages and velocities of stars at the centre of the Milky Way might be related. By testing these predictions we will be able to tell whether the centre contains leftovers from satellites that it has accreted.”
*Photo credit: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory
This image captures a small section of NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s view of the Virgo Cluster, offering a vivid glimpse of the variety in the cosmos. Visible are two prominent spiral galaxies, three merging galaxies, galaxy groups both near and distant, stars within our own Milky Way, and much more.