Introduction
STOP PRESS: Another major milestone reached as reflective coating of the 8.4-meter Primary/Tertiary Mirror
The successful coating of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory's 8.4-metre primary/tertiary mirror with protected silver took place on xxx, marking an important milestone for the project. This event paves the way for the installation of the glass mirrors on the Simonyi Telescope. “This milestone represents not just an incredible feat of engineering, but also an important step towards a transformative new era of scientific advancement,” said Ed Ajhar, NSF Program Director for Rubin Observatory.
Rubin’s primary/tertiary mirror is a one of a kind. Seven years in the making, the 8.4-metre mirror is made up of two optical surfaces, each with a different curvature. They are combined into one large structure about as wide as a tennis court.
Read the full story here xxx
New paper: The morphological mix of dwarf galaxies in the nearby Universe
TBC: Mike Watson : LSST:UK Project Scientist recruitment
TBC: George Beckett Pool Travel Fund reminder
Leadership positions held by LSST:UK members
Here is the latest list of significant leadership positions held by members of the LSST:UK consortium in the project and international Science Collaborations. If you are aware of any corrections or additions please contact the LSST:UK Project Managers (George Beckett and Terry Sloan: lusc_pm@mlist.is.ed.ac.uk).
David Alonso | Co-convenor of the DESC External Synergies Working Group; CMB-S4 DESC Liaison; Simons Observatory DESC Liaison; UK representative on DESC Operations Committee; Core Cosmology Library (CCL) Team lead. |
David Bacon | Member of DESC Speakers Bureau |
Manda Banerji | Member of the Rubin-Euclid DDP Working Group; Galaxies SC member of the Rubin International In-Kind Contribution Evaluation Committee (CEC). |
George Beckett | Member of the LSST DESC High-performance computing resources committee; UK representative on Rubin Data Production Leadership Committee. |
Rebecca. Bowler | Co-chair of the SED fitting and Photometric Redshifts Working Group in the LSST Galaxies Science Collaboration. |
Erminia Calabrese | DESC Advisory Board |
Thomas Collett | Member of the Rubin-Euclid DDP Working Group |
Victor Debattista | Co-lead of the Galactic Bulge WG in the LSST Stars, Milky Way and Local Volume Science Collaboration |
Tassia Ferreira | Member of DESC Collaboration Council; Member of the DESC Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee |
Chris Frohmaier | 4MOST Extra-Galactic Deputy Project Scientist |
Carlos Garcia-Garcia | Co-convenor of the Weak Lensing and Large Scale Structure Working Group |
Qianjun Hang | co-lead of the DESC RAIL Topical Team |
Joachim Harnois-Déraps | DESC Higher Order Statistics (HOS) topical team co-lead |
Peter Hatfield | Co-chair of the Galaxy Environment Working Group in the LSST Galaxies Science Collaboration |
Jenny Hiscock | Member of DESC International Resources Committee |
Sebastian. Hoenig | Co-Chair of the Variability group in the AGN Science Collaboration; In-kind contribution coordinator for the AGN Science Collaboration; AGN SC alternate member of the International In-Kind Contribution Evaluation Committee. |
Sugata Kaviraj | Co-chair of the LSST Galaxies Science Collaboration; Co-chair of the Low Surface Brightness Coordination Group. |
Ofer Lahav | Member of DESC Publication Board |
Boris Leistedt | Co-convenor of the Weak Lensing and Large Scale Structure (LSS) Working Group |
D. Leonard | Co-lead of the DESC Modelling and Combined Probes Analysis Working Group |
Chris Lintott | leads the LSST EPO development of Zooniverse as a citizen science platform |
James Mullaney | Chair of the Active Galactic Nuclei WG in the LSST Galaxies Science Collaboration |
Cyrielle Opitom | Co-lead Active objects WG in the LSST Solar System Science Collaboration |
Subir Sarkar | Lead of DESC Project 52 -- Testing the isotropy of the universe |
Meg Schwamb | Co-chair of Solar System Science Collaboration |
Stephen Smartt | member of the Survey Cadence and Optimisation Committee; DESC Rubin Observatory Project and Facility Operations liaison for Survey Cadence and Optimisation Committee. |
Graham Smith | Co-chair of the Strong Gravitational Lensing Science Collaboration (SLSC); Commissioning Liaison for the SLSC. |
Sreevarsha Sreejith | Member of the DESC Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee |
Mark Sullivan | Co-lead of the DESC Time Domain Analysis Working Group; Member of the DESC Membership Committee; 4MOST/TiDES DESC Liaison. |
Aprajita Verma | In-kind Program Coordination Team Lead; Lead of the Galaxies Science Collaboration Strong Lensing Working Group; Member of SLSC Advisory Group; SLSC member of the International In-Kind Contribution Evaluation Committee; Chair of the Software Sub-committee and International Program Coordinator in the Rubin Director’s Office. |
Maria Vincenzi | Co-convener of the DESC Time Domain Analysis Working Group |
Aaron Watkins | Co-lead of the LSST LSB challenge 1: "How do LSST algorithms do at detecting LSB sources?" ; Co-chair of the low-surface-brightness working group within the LSST Galaxies Science collaboration; Co-chair of the Low Surface Brightness Coordination Group. |
Carola Zanoletti | Co-lead of the DESC Beyond wCDM team |
Dark matter’s ghostly disruptions of stellar streams revealed – latest Rubin science release
The latest science release from Rubin explains how the observatory’s camera will use six different colour filters to detect stellar streams that are around five times more distant than is currently possible.
The article explains how these glittering streams of stars often show telltale signs of disturbance which scientists suspect may be caused by dark matter. The Rubin’s camera will allow these slender trails to be studied in more detail than ever before to uncover their back story. Observing stellar streams allows scientists to probe a different aspect of dark matter because they bear the impact of dark matter’s gravitational effects at small scales.
The artist’s impression, right, shows a myriad of stellar streams in and around the Milky Way. These stretched-out remnants of dwarf galaxies and star clusters showcase gravitational interactions between stars, clumps of dark matter, and the entire galaxy.
New paper: Enabling Science from the Rubin Alert Stream with Lasair
A new paper by Roy Williamsand collaborators published on arXiv sheds light on Lasair, the UK community broker for transient alerts from LSST.
Enabling Science from the Rubin Alert Stream with Lasair explains the system's capabilities, how users can achieve their scientific goals, and how Lasair is implemented. As a mature system, Lasair has been processing and serving data from the similarly formatted stream of the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) alerts.
Pronounced L-AH-s-uh-r, Lasair means flame or flash in Scots and Irish Gaelic.
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 |
---|---|---|---|
20/May/24-23/May/24 | Rare Gems in Big Data. The discovery potential of large astrophysical surveys: science opportunities, tools, and techniques | https://mailchi.mp/d8d4daa3ed0a/first-announcement-rare-gems-in-big-data?e=5176cbbd93 | USA | Tucson, AZ |
08/Jul/24-12/Jul/24 | DESC Collaboration Meeting | Switzerland | ETZ Zurich | |
22/Jul/24-25/Jul/24 | Catching supermassive black holes with Rubin-LSST: Towards novel insights and discoveries into AGN science | https://indico.ict.inaf.it/event/2784/ Registration is now open. Abstract submission deadline is 12 April. | Italy | Turin |
22/Jul/24-26/Jul/24 | Rubin Community Workshop | More details about the meeting will be available once the meeting website is set up and registration opens. | USA | SLAC, California (hybrid) |
16/Sep/24—20/Sep/24 | LSST@Europe6 | Spain | Island of La Palma |
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
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)