Rubin Observatory will expand hunt for interstellar objects

Experts estimate there could be over dozens of them passing within our solar system on a regular basis, but we haven't been able to identify them yet. 

“We calculate that there are a whole lot of these little worlds in our Solar System right now. We just can't find them yet because we aren’t seeing faint enough,” said Michele Bannister, Rutherford Discovery Fellow at the University of Canterbury in Aotearoa, New Zealand, and member of the Rubin Observatory/LSST Solar System Science Collaboration, in an official release. 

However, this is expected to change once the Rubin Observatory comes online in 2024. 

Rubin will find dozen of interstellar objects in the first year

This project is particularly designed to catalog objects flying through our solar system, especially those that are small and faint — previously undetected by telescopes. 

This will be achieved through Rubin’s 8.4-meter telescope, equipped with the world's highest-resolution digital camera. 

“It’s as though you suddenly go from being on a little boat bobbing around in the beautiful shallows just off the shore, to now you’re out over the big deep ocean and you can see into all that expanse for the first time,” described Bannister.

Rubin's fast-moving telescope can also sweep the entire visible sky every few nights. This advanced feature will allow the observatory to capture a timelapse view of interstellar objects as they speed through our solar system.

The observatory is expected to see its first light in 2024 and the Rubin team expects to detect dozens of interstellar visitors during the first year of operation. The objects will be identified based on their speed, spectra, and chemical composition data.  

But why is it so vital to find and study these alien objects? According to scientists, these objects could deepen our understanding of how planetary systems form and evolve. Interstellar objects will bring vital information about distant planetary systems in our own galaxy since they might come from stars all throughout the Milky Way. That’s why Rubin is poised to shape our understanding of both our own solar system and those of other stars.

“Planetary systems are a place of change and growth, of sculpting and reshaping. And planets are like active correspondents in that they can move trillions of little tiny planetesimals out into galactic space,” said Bannister. 

The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the US Department of Energy (DOE) are both funding the Rubin Observatory. Rubin is a program of the National Science Foundation's NOIRLab, which will run alongside the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.