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Register a new userMaximizing LSST Solar System Science: Approaches, Software Tools, and Infrastructure Needs
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The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) is expected to increase known small solar system object populations by an order of magnitude or more over the next decade, enabling a broad array of transformative solar system science investigations to be performed. In this white paper, we discuss software tools and infrastructure that we anticipate will be needed to conduct these investigations and outline possible approaches for implementing them. Feedback from the community or contributions to future updates of this work are welcome. Our aim is for this white paper to encourage further consideration of the software development needs of the LSST solar system science community, and also to be a call to action for working to meet those needs in advance of the expected start of the survey in late 2022.
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The ESA Euclid mission is a space telescope that will survey ~15,000 square degrees of the sky, primarily to study the distant universe (constraining cosmological parameters through the lensing of galaxies). It is also expected to observe ~150,000 Solar System Objects (SSOs), primarily in poorly understood high inclination populations, as it will mostly avoid +/-15 degrees from the ecliptic plane. With a launch date of 2022 and a 6 year survey, Euclid and LSST will operate at the same time, and have complementary capabilities. We propose a LSST mini-survey to coordinate quasi-simultaneous observations between these two powerful observatories, when possible, with the primary aim of greatly improving the orbits of SSOs discovered by these facilities. As Euclid will operate from a halo orbit around the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrangian point, there will be significant parallax between observations from Earth and Euclid (0.01 AU). This means that simultaneous observations will give an independent distance measurement to SSOs, giving additional constraints on orbits compared to single Euclid visits.
Over the past several decades, thousands of planets have been discovered outside of our Solar System. These planets exhibit enormous diversity, and their large numbers provide a statistical opportunity to place our Solar System within the broader context of planetary structure, atmospheres, architectures, formation, and evolution. Meanwhile, the field of exoplanetary science is rapidly forging onward towards a goal of atmospheric characterization, inferring surface conditions and interiors, and assessing the potential for habitability. However, the interpretation of exoplanet data requires the development and validation of exoplanet models that depend on in-situ data that, in the foreseeable future, are only obtainable from our Solar System. Thus, planetary and exoplanetary science would both greatly benefit from a symbiotic relationship with a two-way flow of information. Here, we describe the critical lessons and outstanding questions from planetary science, the study of which are essential for addressing fundamental aspects for a variety of exoplanetary topics. We outline these lessons and questions for the major categories of Solar System bodies, including the terrestrial planets, the giant planets, moons, and minor bodies. We provide a discussion of how many of these planetary science issues may be translated into exoplanet observables that will yield critical insight into current and future exoplanet discoveries.
Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO) has deployed a network of ten identical 1-m telescopes to four locations. The global coverage and flexibility of the LCO network makes it ideal for discovery, follow-up, and characterization of all Solar System objects, and especially Near-Earth Objects (NEOs). We describe the LCO NEO Follow-up Network which makes use of the LCO network of robotic telescopes and an online, cloud-based web portal, NEOexchange, to perform photometric characterization and spectroscopic classification of NEOs and follow-up astrometry for both confirmed NEOs and unconfirmed NEO candidates. The follow-up astrometric, photometric, and spectroscopic characterization efforts are focused on those NEO targets that are due to be observed by the planetary radar facilities and those on the NHATS lists. Astrometry allows us to improve target orbits, making radar observations possible for objects with a short arc or large orbital uncertainty and also allows for the detection and measurement of the Yarkovsky effect on NEOs. Photometric & spectroscopic data allows us to determine the light curve shape and amplitude, measure rotation periods, determine the taxonomic classification, and improve the overall characterization of these targets. We describe the NEOexchange follow-up portal and the methodology adopted which allows the software to be packaged and deployed anywhere, including in off-site cloud services. This allows professionals, amateurs, and citizen scientists to plan, schedule and analyze NEO imaging and spectroscopy data using the LCO network and acts as a coordination hub for the NEO follow-up efforts. We illustrate these capabilities with examples of first period determinations for radar-targeted NEOs and its use to plan and execute multi-site photometric and spectroscopic observations of (66391) 1999 KW4, the subject of the most recent planetary defense exercise campaign.
Making an inventory of the Solar System is one of the four fundamental science requirements for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). The current baseline footprint for LSSTs main Wide-Fast-Deep (WFD) Survey observes the sky below 0$^circ$ declination, which includes only half of the ecliptic plane. Critically, key Solar System populations are asymmetrically distributed on the sky: they will be entirely missed, or only partially mapped, if only the WFD occurs. We propose a Northern Ecliptic Spur (NES) mini survey, observing the northern sky up to +10$^circ$ ecliptic latitude, to maximize Solar System science with LSST. The mini survey comprises a total area of $sim$5800 deg$^2$/604 fields, with 255 observations/field over the decade, split between g,r, and z bands. Our proposed survey will 1) obtain a census of main-belt comets; 2) probe Neptunes past migration history, by exploring the resonant structure of the Kuiper belt and the Neptune Trojan population; 3) explore the origin of Inner Oort cloud objects and place significant constraints on the existence of a hypothesized planet beyond Neptune; and 4) enable precise predictions of KBO stellar occultations. These high-ranked science goals of the Solar System Science Collaboration are only achievable with this proposed northern survey.
The work of astronomers is getting more complex and advanced as the progress of computer development occurs. With improved computing capabilities and increased data flow, more sophisticated software is required in order to interpret, and fully exploit, astronomic data. However, it is not possible for every astronomer to also be a software specialist. As history has shown, the work of scientists always becomes increasingly specialised, and we here argue in favour of another, at least partial, split between programmers and interpreters. In this presentation we outline our vision for a new approach and symbiosis between software specialists and scientists, and present its advantages along with a simple test case.
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