Rubin Observatory starts realtime monitoring of the sky with alerts
a day ago
- #astronomy
- #Rubin-Observatory
- #cosmic-discoveries
- Astronomers received 800,000 alerts about new asteroids, exploding stars, and other cosmic changes from the Rubin Observatory in Chile.
- The Rubin Observatory's Alert Production Pipeline, developed at the University of Washington, will eventually produce up to seven million alerts per night.
- The alerts enable rapid follow-up observations of rare and unusual astronomical events.
- Rubin Observatory will soon begin its 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), capturing nightly images of the Southern Hemisphere sky.
- The UW's Institute for Data Intensive Research in Astrophysics & Cosmology (DiRAC) played a key role in developing the alert system.
- Rubin's alerts help scientists study supernovae, track asteroids, and investigate dark matter and dark energy.
- Data from Rubin is processed in California within minutes, allowing for real-time public alerts.
- The alerts are publicly accessible, enabling global collaboration among researchers and citizen scientists.
- Rubin Observatory is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy.