The Vera C. Rubin Observatory commenced operations last summer with the release of its “first light” images. During its ten-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), the observatory will study the Universe for indications of Dark Matter and Dark Energy. It will also create an inventory of objects within the Solar System, and explore the sky for “transient” objects — i.e., those that move or change in brightness. These include asteroids, comets, interstellar objects (ISOs), transient stars, and supernovae.

To ensure follow-up observations of these objects, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has developed a system to enable rapid responses to Rubin-generated alerts. This allows observatories around the world to aim their telescopes at fleeting objects in the night sky and conduct rapid follow-up observations before they disappear. The system was recently validated when Rubin issued a series of alerts that led to the classification of four supernovae, which are a vital tool for measuring the expansion rate of the Universe.

The system incorporates a series of tools developed by NSF’s National Science Foundation National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab), including an alert-filtering system, an automatic observation request manager, a network of telescopes — the Astronomical Observatory Event Network (AEON) — to conduct observations, and automatic data reduction software. This system helps to process the millions of alerts Rubin is expected to generate every night once the LSST begins.