Nearing First Light: Rubin Observatory Science Expectations and Construction Update

The Rubin Observatory is a new NSF/DOE-funded facility on Cerro Pachón, Chile, housing the 8m-class Simonyi Survey Telescope. The Observatory is in the final stage of construction, expected to achieve first light and enter commissioning in September 2023. Over a ten-year period (projected to start in June 2024) Rubin will execute the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). Enabled by its 9.6 square degree field of view, a 3.2 Gigapixel camera, and a cadence covering the sky every 3-4 days to single-exposure depths of r=24.5mag, the LSST will deliver the largest catalog of Solar System objects to date. This talk will provide an update on Rubin’s construction status, status of the Solar System object discovery pipelines, and introduce the platforms and simulated datasets useful for preparing for early LSST science. Based on simulations, it is predicted to deliver 5M+ main-belt asteroids, 100,000+ NEAs, 200,000+ Jupiter Trojans, 40,000+ TNOs, and tens of ISOs (among others). With first light less than a year away, now is an excellent time to learn more and prepare for this impactful, open, dataset.