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Introduction
The image to the right shows the 3.5m secondary mirror of the Simonyi Survey Telescope in the process of being attached to its support cell, prior to its installation as the first piece of glass to reach its final resting place in the dome. Further details of the M2 installation process are provided in a news item on the Rubin website.
Another recent news item on that site is a summary of the 2024 Rubin Community Workshop (RCW), the first annual workshop in the new, user/science-focussed format. Included in that summary is a link to a recording of a very interesting virtual summit tour streamed live as part of the RCW, while videos of almost 50 RCW sessions are available as a YouTube playlist.
Early August saw the summit covered in snow after a severe winter storm - only the second in almost 30 years to register winds above 100 kph on Cerro Pachón - but the summit facility suffered only minor damage and work resumed shortly after the storm had passed.
Next month’s Newsletter will include details of the next UK Data Rights call, which will take place during October. Details of the call will also be circulated on the lusc-announce list, so please encourage any colleagues likely to want to apply for data rights this autumn to sign up to the lusc-announce list before the end of September.
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New paper: The properties of AGN in dwarf galaxies identified via SED fitting
MNRAS has recently published an article by Brian Bichang’a and collaborators (including Sugata Kaviraj and Aaron Watkins ) on the topic of active galactic nuclei (AGN) in dwarf galaxies.
While the incidence of AGN and their impact on galaxy evolution have been extensively studied in massive galaxies, much less is known about the role of AGN in the evolution of dwarfs. The paper, The properties of AGN in dwarf galaxies identified via SED fitting, explores the incidence of AGN in 508 dwarfs, probes the correlation between AGN activity and factors such as environment, morphology and the presence of interactions and explores whether there is strong evidence for AGN-driven quenching of star formation in dwarf galaxies. Crucially, the deep optical and near-to-mid infrared data used in this study is similar to what will be available using LSST and ancillary surveys. This study therefore offers a preview of dwarf AGN studies that will become possible using LSST in the near future.
The study finds that around a third of dwarfs show signs of AGN activity. The AGN reside at similar distances to nodes, filaments, and nearby massive galaxies as the general dwarf population, which indicates that AGN triggering in the dwarf regime is not strongly correlated with local environment. The fraction of AGN hosts with early-type morphology, and those that are interacting, are also indistinguishable from the general dwarf population, suggesting that interactions do not play a significant role in inducing AGN activity in this sample. Finally, the star formation activity in dwarf AGN is only slightly lower than that in the general population, suggesting that the presence of these radiatively efficient AGN does not lead to significant, prompt quenching of star formation in these systems.
Distribution of the fraction of the bolometric luminosity that is contributed by the AGN (fAGN) in our final sample of 508 dwarf galaxies, which exhibits a bimodality around log fAGN ∼ −2.8. The red histogram denotes galaxies that are defined to be AGN. These are galaxies that have log fAGN > −2.8 and in which including the AGN in the SED fitting improves the quality of the fit (i.e. the χ2 value of the best-fitting model with an AGN template included is smaller than its counterpart without an AGN). The grey histogram corresponds to galaxies that are classified as non-AGN. These are systems that either have log fAGN < −2.8 or where log fAGN > −2.8 but including the AGN does not result in a better fit (see the text in Section 4.1 of the paper for more details)
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Read the paper: https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/532/1/613/7695317 |
Communications news
The US-based Rubin communications team is looking for team members who are interested in speaking on the record about the Rubin Observatory for future media requests. Like In the same way as LSST-UK intends to, they plan to offer opportunities for basic media training including talking points and key messages. Any media referrals will only be made after completion of the training.
If you’re interested, please fill out the Rubin media contact volunteer form. Anyone who has already expressed interest through in UK communications following my previous requests for expressions of interest in comms training and who would like to register with the US team should fill out the form so you don't miss out on any US training opportunities.
Recent LSST:UK Science Centre outputs
The LSST:UK Science Centre has recently produced the following technical reports.
ID | Title | Author(s) | Description |
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D2.4.4 Lessons learned on setup and operation of proto-DAC for Data Preview 0.2 | G.Beckett, A. Ibsen, M. Read | The UK DAC team has ingested a complete set of Rubin DP0.2 catalogues (a little under 40 Terabytes of tabular data) into the UK IDAC platform running on the Somerville research cloud in Edinburgh. These catalogues have been published to early-adopters via the Rubin Science Platform, following an analogous approach to that used by the Rubin Observatory for their Interim Data Facility. This deliverbale describes the team’s experience of ingesting the DP0.2 catalogues into Qserv as well as a description of the ingestion of file-based data products (images, etc.) into the Data Butler. The deliverable also includes appendices containing copies of the various scripts and Qserv configuration files and details of the setup of the Data Butler registry on the UK IDAC host (Somerville). | |
D2.6.7 Documentation for DP0.2 on UK RSP | A. Ibsen, M. Read, G. Beckett | To support the publication of Rubin Data Preview DP0.2 on the UK IDAC, UK DAC team have provided documentation to help users get started with the dataset. | |
D3.3.1 Super-match software | T. Wilson, T Naylor | In LSST:UK Phase B, WP3.11 produced the cross-match software, macauff, that will detect a series of catalogue-catalogue counterparts, or associations between objects in two datasets. These counterpart assignments – identification that an LSST source and some ancillary survey detection correspond to the same on-sky object – are necessary to perform a wide range of scientific research. However, there are many research goals that would benefit further from the next logical step in this process: the combining of crossmatches, to construct views of the brightness of objects in an even-wider range of wavelengths. In LSST:UK Phase C, WP3.3 has therefore produced the birnam software, that builds on the results from macauff to create a “super-match.” By combining all LSST cross-matches, this software will perform a merging of all photometric detections to provide for the astronomical community the full spectral energy distribution of all LSST objects in each data release. |
News in brief
UK spotlight on Rubin
Fantasy Football – sign up now
Awareness of the significance and future impact of Rubin is gaining momentum on this side of the Atlantic thanks to recent coverage in UK-based outlets.
BBC Sky At Night magazine published an article online and in print, The biggest camera in world is part of a new observatory set to study the mysterious dark universe.
University of Oxford astronomer and popular YouTuber Dr. Becky (Smethurst) recently gave her audience the lowdown on Rubin in her latest video, The most ambitious astronomy project EVER | The Vera Rubin Observatory.
Last season, a few members of the LSST:UK Science Centre (LUSC) team ran a Fantasy Premier League league and, as it was a lot of fun, we would like to open up this season’s league to the whole LSST:UK community.
There was a broad range of levels of seriousness/skill/luck within even the handful of players who took part last season, from the impressively-knowledgable (e.g., the winner: Chris Frohmaier) to the absolute novice, so everyone is welcome and should find someone at a similar level with whom to enjoy a friendly rivalry over the coming months.
In order to give people who are new to Fantasy Premier League time to set up a squad, we plan to launch the league in Gameweek 5 (21&22 September), so please have your squad ready by Friday 20 September. Once you have, you’ll need to go to this URL and enter the code jhff2z to join the LSST:UK league.
Fantasy football may not be to everyone’s taste, so please let me know if there are other social activities that we can set up within the LSST:UK community and advertise through the Newsletter.
Forthcoming meetings of interest
Dates, locations and links… The current list of forthcoming meetings is always available on the Relevant Meetings page. You may also wish to check information held on the LSST organisation website LSST-organised events and the LSST Corporation website.
Dates | Meeting Title / Event | Meeting Website/ Contact | Meeting location / venue |
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16/Sep/24 to 20/Sep/24 | LSST@Europe6 | Spain | Island of La Palma | |
25/Sep/24 to 27/Sep/24 | LSST Solar System Readiness Sprint | Oxford, UK | |
10/Nov/24 to 14/Nov/24 | Astronomical Data Analysis Software & Systems (ADASS | Malta | Virtual |
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Members of the Consortium (not in receipt of travel funding through one of the Science Centre grants) may apply for travel support for meetings of this kind via the LSST:UK Pool Travel Fund. Details are available at Forthcoming LSST-related Meetings |
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If you have significant news or announcements that are directly relevant to LSST:UK and would like to share them in a future newsletter, contact Eleanor O'Kane (email eokane@roe.ac.uk) |
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