An update on SSSC activities and progress over the past several months and other Rubin Observatory-related news. A more detailed version will be sent out to the SSSC collaboration
SSSC Seminar - On April 30th at 9:00am PT (12ET, 17BST) featuring Mario Juric will share what he can about commissioning.
EPSC-DPS LSST Session - We have successfully pitched an EPSC-DPS session: “The Rubin Observatory Census of the Solar System: Initial Commissioning Results and First Year Science Expectations for the Legacy Survey of Space and Time” The session will present the first Solar System discoveries and characterization data from Rubin commissioning efforts, and preliminary analyses made with those observations. We welcome abstract submissions focused on topics related to early LSST Solar System science such as: predictions of discovery yields, presentations on Solar System-oriented alert brokers and other science-enabling tools, follow-up observations and campaigns, citizen science projects, and ways to combine LSST data with other sources of astronomical data. Abstract deadline: 7 May 2025, 13:00 CEST.
Fifth SCOC-Science Collaborations Workshop - The virtual Survey Cadence Optimization Committee-Science Collaborations Workshop is scheduled for May 6 & 7 (8am -11am PDT). The meeting will include discussions on updates to the survey strategy simulations, strategies for template collection in Operations Year1, reports from the Deep Drilling Task Force - Register here (starting on April 4th).
Rubin Community Workshop (RCW) - Registration is now open for the 2025 Rubin Community Workshop, to be held in Tucson July 28 - August 1. The meeting will be hybrid with a limit of 250 in-person attendees. More information and a link to register can be found on the meeting website.
Rubin Science Assemblies - There is now a series of LSST science preparation seminars focusing on how to access Rubin data, rather than how to do the science. All are welcome to join at Thursdays, 9am Pacific (Zoom: ls.st/dp0-events) - April 24 will be dedicated to planetary astronomy with Rubin.
Commissioning Status - LSSTCam is now installed on the telescope. On-sky commissioning with LSSTCam is expected in April. A technote has been released providing some details of the status of data management pipelines and aspects of the telescope and camera based on the 2 months of on-sky commissioning with ComCam.
Community Alert Filters for the ANTARES broker - A primary goal of these “community filters” are to provide the community with a low barrier-to-entry starting point to conduct science with Rubin alerts. Rubin Observatory will develop, implement, and validate an initial set of ~5 community filters for the ANTARES broker. They anticipate supporting up to 20 community filters in the future. The Rubin Community Science Team is asking for feedback/suggestions for these filters by May 30th.
Revised Plans for Upcoming SSSC Sprints- Given the changing data release schedule, we’re currently planning the two LSST Solar System Data Sprints in 2026. In early 2026 ( tentatively scheduled for February or March 2026), we will hold the LSST Solar System First Data Sprint, as an in-person/hybrid sprint week at Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland/Belfast. The sprint will focus on diving into the first few months of prompt data products and discoveries from the LSST. Then tentatively scheduled in April/May we will hold the second Data Sprint at the University of Washington when Data Preview 2 is released, which primarily consists of the science validation survey data using LSSTCam. There will be a remote option for the talks and tutorials for those that can’t make it in-person. Dates and formats/locations have been set to be as flexible as possible given the flux in the data preview release schedule. We’ll have exact dates for these scheduled later in the summer as the release dates for DR2 and the start of the LSST are finalized. We are also looking at options for fully virtual 1 to 2 day workshop for the Data Preview 1.
Rubin First Look Press Release - The First Look press conference is tentatively scheduled for June 17, 2025 with a back-up date of July 16, 2025. At the start of the press conference, the embargo will lift on a set of image products (Data Preview 1).
AAS Journal Focus Issues - We have two focus issues around LSST software (Rubin LSST Solar System Analysis Software Focus Issue in AJ) and discovery predictions ( Rubin LSST Solar System Predictions Focus Issue in PSJ) . Please note: Papers can be submitted to any of the peer-reviewed AAS Journals and be included in thse Focus Issues (e.g you can submit to AJ and ask to have the paper included in the predictions focus issue). More details here.
Hurry Up and Get an Account on the Rubin Science Platform - New accounts on the Rubin Science Platform (RSP) are approved manually by Rubin staff. To avoid significant delays in getting an RSP account setup when the commissioning and science validation datasets are released, create your RSP account today.
Meg and Colin
SSSC Co-Chairs