The NSF Vera C. Rubin Observatory is nearing completion in Chile, and from 2025 will commence building up the deepest, widest image of the Universe at optical wavelengths. The “Legacy Survey of Space and Time” (LSST) will map the entire southern sky every few nights for ten years, using a specially designed 8.4 m diameter telescope with an extremely wide field of view (3.5 degrees).
Its powerful 3,200-megapixel camera will reveal billions of stars and galaxies that have never been imaged before – a veritable ‘treasure trove’ of new discoveries. Recently, the telescope reached a major milestone when observatory staff successfully installed the combined primary/tertiary mirror. With all three mirrors and the commissioning camera in place, the stage is set for LSST to get underway in 2025.
During the 2023/24 period, AAL was delighted to announce that it had finally secured long-term rapid access for Australian astronomers to data from the LSST. This will allow Australian-based astronomers to be at the forefront of discoveries from this ground-breaking survey.
Under this data rights agreement, a team of expert software engineers based at Macquarie University in Sydney and Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne will provide vital software for Rubin Observatory, together with storage and processing power for an Australian-based LSST Independent Data Access Centre (IDAC). The software will be developed by Astronomy Data and Computing Services (ADACS) – an AAL initiative – and the IDAC will be managed and hosted by the Swinburne node of ADACS. Rubin Observatory was keen to enlist ADACS for the task of enhancing its science platform software, which will help it process an enormous amount of data from its observations. It will also enable the production of data catalogues, which will be made available to astronomers for analysis. It is estimated that the LSST will gather approximately 20 terabytes of raw data every night during its ten-year survey and process it in near real time.
The formalisation of this agreement was made possible after years of hard work by AAL on behalf of a consortium of 14 AAL member institutions, who originally secured a Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) grant from the Australian Research Council back in December 2021 to support the ADACS software team and develop the data centre. The original proposal team, led by Professor Sarah Brough (UNSW), worked with AAL to bring this engagement with Rubin Observatory to fruition with a formalised agreement, while also overseeing the process for appointing 47 Australian-based Principal Investigators and 188 Junior Associates (research students and postdoctoral researchers). These individuals will gain prompt access to LSST data alongside their US and Chilean colleagues and be able to participate in the LSST Science Collaborations. The new AAL LSST Science Lead, Professor Rachel Webster (University of Melbourne), will now manage the ongoing engagement with the Rubin Observatory.
In addition, the AAL Board is looking at membership options for the LSST Discovery Alliance, a consortium of institutions committed to maximising the impact of the LSST, advancing its science goals and ensuring astronomers can effectively collaborate via funding for workshops and fellowships.
AAL is proud to be a valued partner of the Rubin Observatory. For further information, please visit AAL’s Vera C. Rubin Observatory/LSST page.
Support for AAL’s engagement with Rubin Observatory has been provided by the Australian Research Council, via a Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) grant. Additional support has been provided by the Australian Government’s National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) program.