2023 Ashtekar Frontiers of Science

Exploring Open Science and Big Data

Presented by Niel Brandt

Verne M. Willaman Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Professor of Physics, Penn State

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The Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), to be conducted by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory starting in late 2024, will be a 10-year color movie of about half the sky to high sensitivity in the optical and near-infrared wavelengths. Its data will have enormous scientific scope, allowing breakthrough studies of the nature of dark matter and dark energy, cosmic explosions and other transient events, supermassive black holes, the structure of our galaxy, and the contents of our solar system. In this talk, Brandt will describe the scientific potential of the LSST as well as its opportunities for citizen science and education.