Simulation: New telescope soon to detect millions of objects in the solar system
In a few days, the first images from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory are to be presented. Simulations are now raising expectations of the instrument.
Long exposure of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory
(Image: Hernan Stockebrand/rubinobservatory.org)
Thanks in part to the world's largest digital camera, a new observatory should soon discover several million previously unknown objects in the solar system, including the majority of asteroids that are potentially dangerous for the Earth. This has been predicted by an international research team using “innovative” new software and has raised expectations for the Vera C. Rubin Observatory shortly before it goes into operation. As the group goes on to explain, the instrument will not only detect celestial bodies, but also image them several times with different filters. For astronomy, this will be “like the transition from black-and-white television to brilliant color”.
Multiplying our knowledge
According to the simulations, the new telescope is expected to detect more than 120,000 asteroids and comets that are at least approaching the Earth's orbit and are therefore potentially dangerous in the first few years after commissioning. Currently, around 38,000 are known, and it is expected that more than 70 percent of asteroids larger than 140 meters will be found, which would be particularly dangerous in the event of an impact. In addition, the new observatory should find five million new objects in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, over 100,000 Jupiter Trojans, around 37,000 trans-Neptunian objects and several thousand asteroids between Jupiter and Neptune (the so-called centaurs), the team writes.
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It took 225 years to find the 1.5 million asteroids known to date, explains Jake Kurlander, a doctoral student involved in the analysis: “The Vera C. Rubin Observatory will double this number in less than a year.” This is not just a record hunt because many of these objects formed with the planets. Once we have a more accurate picture of their orbits and composition, we will be able to reconstruct the history of the solar system much more precisely. Our knowledge of the solar system will multiply exponentially and rapidly, adds Meg Schwamb, who developed the simulation software used. The predictions are now being presented in several research articles.
The telescope in Chile received its centerpiece in the spring, and the largest digital camera was attached to the telescope. Its research work is now being prepared, and the first images are to be shown to the public on June 23. The giant digital camera is called the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) and has a sensor array consisting of 201 individual CCD sensors, each with 16 megapixels. In its observatory, the giant digital camera will benefit from a mirror with a diameter of 8.4 meters and a particularly large field of view. This will enable it to repeatedly photograph the entire night sky and create the largest time-lapse of the night sky ever seen within ten years.
(mho)
