• 1 Introduction
• 2 Junior Associates Network update
• 3 LSST:UK All Hands Meeting – save the date
• 4 Record-breaking asteroid discovered by Rubin
• 5 First response by the Rubin Target of Opportunity Advisory Board
• 6 Communications news
  • 6.1 Training for the Junior Associates Network
  • 6.2 In the Spotlight this month
  • 6.3 Stay connected on social media
  • 6.4 New home for communications resources
• 7 Forthcoming meetings of interest

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Introduction

Rubin Early Operations system optimisation continues, with the latest update from Keith Bechtol implying that it will last until the planned engineering downtime in March, so that the 10-year LSST will not begin until after the Observatory operations have restarted after that. Some science is, however, already being done with Rubin data: an item below describes fast-rotating asteroids discovering in data taken ahead of First Look last summer, while Samantha Oates reports on the first action of the Rubin Target of Opportunity Advisory Board, of which she is a member, leading to Rubin follow up of the gravitational wave event S251112cm.

The Rubin Community Science Team is helping the community prepare for the imminent start of the alert stream, with a Science Assembly on 22 January dedicated to “Commissioning data and preparing for alerts” and with a programme of future events over the coming months that includes a session by each of the community broker teams, including our own Lasair team on 26 February. So, those interested in time-domain science using the Rubin alert stream should keep an eye on those events – recordings of all of which will be posted on the Rubin Science Assemblies webpage – for information about the differing functionality provided by each of the brokers, with a particular focus on the Lasair event, given the breadth of capabilities that it provides and its strong links to the UK community.

Closer to home, we are about to contact those awarded data rights in our most recent round, which saw our community of data rights holders increase to 184 PIs and 286 Junior Associates, but, of course, current thoughts within the wider UK astronomical community are dominated by the PPAN prioritisation exercise and the cuts to follow it, from which UK involvement in the LSST is unlikely to emerge unscathed.

@Bob Mann

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Credit: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory/NOIRLab/SLAC/NSF/DOE/AURA/P. Horálek (Institute of Physics in Opava)

 

Junior Associates Network update

Here are a few short updates about the newly-formed LSST:UK Junior Associates Network (JAN) – a network organised by junior associates for junior associates.

JAN leadership opportunities

Now that the JAN has been established for a few months, we wish to present opportunities for Junior Associates to help lead the JAN. To this end, we are introducing two closely-linked leadership bodies within the JAN: the Executive Committee (JANEC) and the Organising Committee (JANOC). 

The JANEC is to consist of two chairs, who will also have positions in the LSST:UK Executive Group, and two representatives, who will sit on the LSST:UK Consortium Board and act as the voice of the JAN in the Board meetings. We currently have two chairs – Clara Pennock and Tom Wilson – but no board representatives, and Clara will soon be stepping down as chair. There are thus three vacancies in the JANEC soon to open up, for which we plan to hold elections soon (details below), after which we will continue with a regular election cycle for the four JANEC positions.

The proposed election cycle for the JANEC is as follows: all members of the JANEC will serve 18-month terms, staggered so that a chair and a board representative are elected every 9 months, ensuring experienced members are always present to guide newly-elected members. For this round of elections, one of the two board members will serve a shorter term so that we can establish the staggered cycle mentioned above. Nominations will open on Monday 9 Feb (self-nominations are welcomed!), and members of the JAN will be able to vote for their choice among the nominees between Monday 9 March and Friday 20 March.

Meanwhile, the JANOC is a less formal body consisting of all members of the JANEC (by default) and any number of volunteers willing to help keep the JAN running and to ensure it is as beneficial as possible to its members. There are no elections involved, so positions are open to anyone who wishes to help the JANOC in any way. Current responsibilities within the JANOC include: managing the JAN Slack channels in the LSST:UK workspace; updating the JAN Wiki page;  writing these newsletter updates; being in charge of membership; advertising various career opportunities to members of the JAN; and organising workshops and regular telecons for the JAN. All of these are open to volunteers wishing to help out, and more than one person can be assigned to each role. These are also only a few possible roles, so whether these roles interest you or if you have other ways of helping in mind, then please feel free to volunteer! Just get in touch with either of our current chairs, Clara Pennock (cpennock@roe.ac.uk) and Tom Wilson (T.J.Wilson@exeter.ac.uk).

Communications training for JAN members

We would also like to take this opportunity to announce that Eleanor O’Kane has kindly offered to deliver two 55-minute sessions on Comms training for members of the JAN. Further details of these sessions and a link to a sign-up form can be found below.

Additional information

More information on the JAN can be found on the Wiki, including details of the various Slack channels available to JANs in the LSST:UK workspace, and minutes from the meetings of the JAN leadership team and information on the JANEC election cycle.

Finally, if you are a Junior Associate who has not yet joined the JAN but would like to, then sign up to the mailing list by filling in this online form and following the instructions in the subsequent email.

Please hold the week of 13-17 April 2026 for these meetings at an exciting time for both surveys! 

The LSST:UK AHM will run 13-14 April, followed by a joint meeting of Euclid-UK and LSST:UK plus joint dinner on 15 April, and the Euclid-UK meeting on 16-17 April.  We will open registration and announce more details in the coming weeks.

@Graham Smith

Record-breaking asteroid discovered by Rubin

The first peer-reviewed paper to use LSST Camera data has highlighted the fastest-ever spinning asteroid, named 2025 MN45.

The object is one of 19 super- and fast-rotating asteroids observed by Rubin during data collection in advance of June 2025’s First Look event. Named 2025 MN45, the asteroid is 710 metres (0.4 miles) in diameter and it completes a full rotation every 1.88 minutes. This makes it the fastest-spinning asteroid with a diameter over 500 metres ever found.

The study, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, uses data collected between 21 April to 5 May 2025. It was led by Sarah Greenstreet, NSF NOIRLab assistant astronomer and lead of Rubin Observatory’s Solar System Science Collaboration’s Near-Earth Objects and Interstellar Objects working group.

The open access paper, Lightcurves, Rotation Periods, and Colors for Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s First Asteroid Discoveries, presents 76 asteroids with reliable rotation periods. This includes 16 super-fast rotators with rotation periods between roughly 13 minutes and 2.2 hours, and three ultra-fast rotators that complete a full spin in less than five minutes. @Eleanor O'Kane

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Credit: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory/NOIRLab/SLAC/AURA/P. Marenfeld

 

First response by the Rubin Target of Opportunity Advisory Board

The Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) plans to spend up to ~3% of its observing time following-up Targets of Opportunity (ToOs). The targets will initially be events triggered by gravitational wave sources from the LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA array, neutrino events from IceCube, and candidate potentially hazardous asteroids revealed by the JPL Scout system. The triggering of ToO observations with Rubin Observatory will largely be by automated algorithms. The Rubin ToO Observer (RTO) will manage ToO triggers at the observatory and to make trigger decisions in real time, supported by the newly created Rubin ToO Advisory Board. The board’s role will be to review the planned ToO observations and suggest modifications or even cancel follow-up in light of new information. The board will also be responsible for reviewing the success of the ToO observations and providing longer-term advice on how to improve the ToO trigger criteria and follow-up strategy, as well as considering expansions of the programme's scope.

The 11 members of the Rubin ToO Advisory Board were selected in October 2025 and will serve a two-year term on the board. Members come from across the Rubin community, including from the Chilean, UK, and French communities. They offer expertise in a broad range of areas, including:  time domain astronomy, solar system science, gravitational wave events and their electromagnetic counterparts, neutrino events and their electromagnetic counterparts, and potentially hazardous asteroids. 

The board has had both its inaugural meeting and its first response to an interesting target of opportunity. On 12 November 2025, LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA reported a sub-solar mass merger candidate S251112cm (GCN 42650, GCN 42690), indicating that at least one component of the binary merger is sub-solar in mass. Alerts for sub-solar mass gravitational wave (GW) alerts only started to be produced in February last year, and this was the first event to be reported by LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA. Formally, the GW event did not meet any of the alert criteria for Rubin ToO observations, but the Rubin ToO Advisory Board met to discuss the event and unanimously recommended Rubin to observe. 

Despite Rubin performing engineering optimisation activities and only DECam templates to rely on at the time, Rubin leadership agreed to observe this rare gravitational wave trigger and observations were obtained. Rubin observed the gravitational wave localisation in LSST g and i bands, with one 30-second visit for each band, on nights 0, 2, 4, and 6 after the start of observations, with the first observations taking place on the night of November 14, 2025 (GCN 42707, GCN 43257). A list of candidate counterparts was reported in the Rubin observations after careful analysis; however, no candidate has been securely identified as yet as the counterpart (GCN 43257). LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA teams have proposed a six-month observing run to begin in the late summer/early Autumn of 2026. It therefore looks promising that Rubin will be performing ToO observations of further GW events in the near future. Hopefully, this time with successfully confirmed counterparts! Fingers crossed!

Samantha Oates on behalf of the Rubin ToO Advisory Board

Communications news

Training for the Junior Associates Network

In March we’re running online communications training for the JAN, sharing tips and tools for communicating your work effectively. These insights can help your work gain visibility, even if you’re not interested in public engagement. For example, they can enhance how you write presentations, LinkedIn posts and even funding applications.

Over two 55-minute lunchtime sessions, Eleanor O’Kane, LSST:UK Communications Officer, will share good practice for effective science communication. Session one covers the basics; it can be attended as a single session and provides lots of great tips for sharing your work. For those who wish to develop further skills, a second session one week later will provide more insights and inspiration.

How to enrol

In the Spotlight this month

The latest LSST:UK team members to come under the spotlight are @Clara Pennock and @Terry Sloan. Go to the website to find out what propelled Clara to focus her work on active galactic nuclei (AGN); and learn what’s Terry secret talent is.

Access all the team interviews on the website.

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Stay connected on social media

You’ll find us across social media on Instagram (new!), Bluesky and LinkedIn. Give us a follow if you’re on any of these platforms.

New home for communications resources

The LSST:UK Communication Resources page contains links to the logo, key messages guide, previous training and other communication details. It’s a useful page to consult when talking about LSST:UK and Rubin to anyone who’s not familiar with the UK involvement in Rubin, incuding colleagues, media and astronomy organisations.

 @Eleanor O'Kane

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.