Transforming Our Understanding of the Universe

On Monday, 23 June, the astronomy community gathered around the world and at the Iziko Planetarium in Cape Town and the Wits Anglo-American Digital Dome to celebrate the unveiling of the Vera C Rubin Observatory’s first light images. The Vera C Rubin Observatory is set to transform our understanding of the Universe through its Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), which will commence later this year.

Over the next 10 years, the Rubin Observatory is expected to generate about 60 petabytes of data, more than the sum of everything that has ever been written in any language in human history. The Square Kilometer Array (SKA), a radio telescope under construction in South Africa and Australia, will produce considerably more data than this. Astronomy is no longer restrained by what could be observed, but by how well the flood of information collected can be handled and understood.

South African Scientific Engagement with LSST 

Ten South African scientists and their teams will have access to Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) data to enable groundbreaking research on topics that range from the origins of the universe to galaxy evolution and the mechanisms behind stellar explosions. The principal investigators (PIs) leading these teams are affiliated with the following institutions (more details appended):

• South African Astronomical Observatory (NRF-SAAO)
• University of the Witwatersrand (Wits)
• University of the Western Cape (UWC)
• University of Stellenbosch (US)
• University of Cape Town (UCT)
• University of Pretoria (UP)
• University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN)
• University of South Africa (UNISA)

Valuable South African Facilities and Skills

South Africa’s award of 10 LSST PI positions, along with their Junior Associates, who enjoy the same data access privileges as their counterparts in the USA and Chile, is the result of significant contributions by South African institutions to the Rubin Observatory collaboration. These contributions are coordinated through the NRF’s South African Astronomical Observatory (NRF-SAAO), under the leadership of Prof Rosalind Skelton, and include:

• Observing time on the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) and other NRF-SAAO telescopes at the Sutherland Observatory
• Access to images and catalogues from the MeerKAT Radio Telescope (MeerKAT), coordinated by Prof Matt Hilton (Wits)
• Organisational and software support for Rubin’s Dark Energy Survey, provided by Dr Michelle Lochner (UWC)

“National and international collaborations are fundamental to the advancement of science,” says Prof Patricia Whitelock (NRF-SAAO and UCT), manager of the South African LSST project. “The LSST offers a tremendous opportunity for South African astronomers to engage with a global community and to showcase the capabilities of facilities in Africa including SALT, MeerKAT, and the SKA.”

The South African partnership with the Rubin Observatory began in 2011 with a Letter of Commitment signed by the NRF-SAAO. From this partnership, South Africa gets up to 80 scientists with the same data access rights as those from the USA. In turn, the USA gets access to the optical telescopes—the SALT and other NRF-SAAO facilities, as well as radio data images and catalogues from the MeerKAT.