Rubin Astrometry and Radial Velocity

I work with a team from NASA/JPL and Arizona State University that is using transit photometry to constrain radial velocity determinations of exoplanet ephemerides. There is a small, but growing, community of other teams that are researching the use of astrometry to constrain radial velocity for their exoplanet research. I recognize that there are higher resolution telescopes than Rubin that are used in the current research but I think that there is an opportunity with LSST. Has there been any thinking about the exoplanet research that can be done with LSST? Anyone that you know within the Rubin community that may be interested?

Hi @sdcorle1,

I think a likely place to find like-minded people is in the LSST Science Collaborations, and specifically the Transients and Variables SC (TVS) chaired by @iandreoni and @sbonito. The TVS is accepting applications for new members.

Although it appears from the TVS’s webpage the “Transiting Planets” might be inactive at the moment, perhaps there would be interest in getting it going again. Plus, it may be that there are exoplanet-related preparations being made in other sub-groups looking at, e.g., lightcurves, microlensing. For example, Hambleton et al. (2023) “Rubin Observatory LSST Transients and Variable Stars Roadmap” has some references to exoplanet research with LSST.

Thanks Melissa. After a recommendation from @Vincenzo during the Data Academy, I had a look at the Hambleton paper which confirmed my understanding of the long term plans. I will definitely reach out to the TVS to better understand the current situation. I understand that this may not be a current focus for them, but I would very much like to continue to explore the area.

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@sdcorle1 I’d be interested to chat about this more - you might also want to ask in the Milky Way group as we have a lot of brown dwarf people over there too

Sarah, thanks for responding. I have reached out to TVS as Melissa suggested even though I know that their Exoplanets subgroup is currently closed. While I am waiting for a response from them, I will also have a look at your group. If there is a relevant forum, a resource or any existing documentation on the work that is being done on brown dwarfs, I would appreciate being pointed in the right direction.

@jgizis is the person to ask here I think about the BDs! I know there are people interested from an astrometry point of view for parallaxes. There is also a new astrometry group on the slack which might be of interest although they haven’t started much chat there - maybe If you post your question that will help get some discussion going - #smwlvl-astrometry

Perfect, thanks.

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