NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory Will Detect Millions of Exploding Stars

[Ptah]

Rubin Observatory’s rapid scanning of the night sky will capture the largest sample of Type Ia supernovae yet, unlocking new insights into the nature of dark energy



https://noirlab.edu/public/news/noirlab2503/?lang

NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, will soon witness the explosions of millions of dying stars. Scientists use the light from these events to measure cosmic distances and study dark energy’s effect on the Universe’s expansion. Over its 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time, Rubin could change our understanding of how — and when — the Universe formed.

Measuring distances across the Universe is much more challenging than measuring distances on Earth. Is a brighter star closer to Earth than another, or is it just emitting more light? To make confident distance measurements, scientists rely on objects that emit a known amount of light, like Type Ia supernovae.

These spectacular explosions, among the brightest to ever be recorded in the night sky, result from the violent deaths of white dwarf stars and provide scientists with a reliable cosmic yardstick. Their brightness and color, combined with information about their host galaxies, allow scientists to calculate their distance and how much the Universe expanded while their light made its journey to us. With enough Type Ia supernovae observations, scientists can measure the Universe’s expansion rate and whether it changes over time.

Although we’ve caught thousands of Type Ia supernovae to date, seeing them once or twice is not enough — there is a goldmine of information in how their fleeting light varies over time. NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory will soon begin scanning the southern hemisphere sky every night for ten years, covering the entire hemisphere approximately every few nights. Every time Rubin detects an object changing brightness or position it will send an alert to the science community. With such rapid detection Rubin will be our most powerful tool yet for spotting Type Ia supernovae before they fade away.

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Every night Rubin Observatory will produce about 20 terabytes of data and generate up to 10 million alerts — no other telescope in history has produced a firehose of data quite like this. It has required scientists to rethink the way they manage rapid alerts and to develop methods and systems to handle the large incoming datasets.

[Ocelot II]

1. When will Trump pull the plug on this? It's *science,* after all.