The Legacy Survey of Space and Time

Fueled by advances in microelectronics, software, and large optics fabrication, a new type of sky survey will begin in 2025. With 1000 deep images per night, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) will cover the entire southern sky to 24th magnitude every 3 nights for ten years in 6 wavelength bands - creating a digital color motion picture of our Universe. LSST opens a new discovery space: faint transients. Alerts will be issued within 60 seconds of detection. The deep images from LSST will chart billions of remote galaxies, providing multiple interlocking probes of the mysterious Dark Matter and Dark Energy. Scientists worldwide will access these data, leading to unexpected discoveries. I will briefly review the project history, the 3200 megapixel camera, and laboratory testing of the CCD detectors. I will then focus on the interference to astronomy from low Earth orbiting communications satellites.

Speaker: Tony Tyson, UC Davis