The alert system at Rubin Observatory sent out 800,000 sounds on the first night

Vera C. Rubin Observatory Automated alert system It’s online and astronomers are already bombarded with things to look at in the night sky. The system went public on Tuesday, February 24, and on the first night it dropped some of it 800,000 alerts on AsteroidsSupernovas and black holes. This number is expected to rise to several million per night.

Observatory issued First pictures It was captured using the car-sized Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) camera in June last year. But researchers and stargazers have been eagerly awaiting the launch of this system. Each night, the camera takes about 1,000 images and then compares them with a reference image taken when the telescope was first turned on. Differences are flagged automatically, and the algorithm can distinguish between potential supernovas and approaching asteroids to send alerts to interested parties, all within just minutes. This means that scientists can quickly turn their attention to passing celestial events.

Fortunately, alerts aren’t all or nothing. They could be Filtered Depending on the type of event, brightness, or even the number of events during a certain period of time. This should help prevent researchers from being overwhelmed with alerts, as the Rubin Observatory works to increase the rate of detections.