Vera C. Rubin Observatory begins 10-year LSST sky survey, 11,000+ asteroids and 33 near-Earth objects already logged
The telescope built to catalog nearly every asteroid that could threaten Earth just switched on. NSF-DOE's Vera C. Rubin Observatory began its 10-year sky survey on June 30, already logging over 11,000 new asteroids including 33 near-Earth objects, with up to 7 million change-ale
The observatory built to find nearly every asteroid that could threaten Earth has switched on. On June 30, the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile began its Legacy Survey of Space and Time, a continuous 10-year scan of the southern sky. The early numbers already stand out. In its first weeks of test observations, Rubin logged more than 11,000 previously unknown asteroids, including 33 near-Earth objects and 380 objects beyond Neptune, the largest single batch of asteroid discoveries submitted to the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center in the past year. What changes now is the pace. Once in full survey mode, Rubin is expected to issue up to 7 million alerts each night whenever something in the sky moves or changes brightness. For planetary defense, that means hazardous objects can be spotted and tracked years earlier, shifting the work from occasional, luck-driven discovery to systematic monitoring. The same flood of data will also feed studies of supernovae, the structure of the Milky Way, and the distant icy worlds at the edge of the solar system. Source: NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory.