From a mountaintop in Chile, the Rubin Legacy Survey of Space and Time will survey an estimated 20 billion galaxies.
At the end of last month, King's cosmologists joined researchers across the world in celebrating the launch of the Rubin Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), one of the most ambitious studies of the cosmos ever taken.
From the top of a mountain in Chile, the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory will use the largest camera ever bult to capture vast swathes of the southern sky to create an ultra-wide, ultra-high-definition time-lapse record of the Universe. The eight and a half metre optical telescope will catalogue an estimated 17 billion stars, 20 billion galaxies and millions of supernovae across ten years, magnitudes above previous experiments.
Scientists across the world hope that this new data might help solve some of the Universe's most enduring mysteries, including the nature of dark matter and how the Milky Way and other galaxies have evolved over time.
Dark matter could come in so many potential forms, but not all are created equal. By comparing how we would expect different masses and kinds of dark matter to behave, to what we can actually observe, we can whittle down the candidates who don't match reality. We even have the prospect of detecting a new cosmic signature of dark matter that elucidates its true fundamental nature.
Dr Keir Rogers
Dr Keir Rogers, Proleptic Senior Lecturer in Physics and STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellow, in the Department of Physics will be using the data gathered by the LSST to delve deeper into the fundamental nature of dark matter using machine learning.
Thought to make up as much as 85% of mass in the Universe, dark matter is so far an unknown and unobservable form of matter - but its effects on phenomena like light can be observed and measured.
Measuring how light is bent by large celestial objects like clusters of galaxies through the theory of general relativity, making it appear as if it came from a different place than its original source, Dr Rogers will use this to estimate what the mass of dark matter could be.
Alongside looking at how potential dark matter interacts with small, faint galaxies called dwarf galaxies and thin groupings of stars orbiting galaxies called stellar streams, he hopes to use advanced AI techniques to match the experimental observations afforded by LSST to the theoretical work on dark matter happening in universities like King's.
Dr Rogers said, "Dark matter could come in so many potential forms, but not all are created equal. By comparing how we would expect different masses and kinds of dark matter to behave, to what we can actually observe, we can whittle down the candidates who don't match reality. We even have the prospect of detecting a new cosmic signature of dark matter that elucidates its true fundamental nature.
"By bridging the vast experimental data we're hoping to collect with the LSST to the rigorous theoretical work we do here at King's, establishing and testing dark matter candidates, we hope to get even closer to solving the Universe's most enduring mystery."
A major international partner of the US-led Rubin Observatory, the LSST UK consortium is funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and is made up of 36 partner institutions including King's.
"Today marks the beginning of a new era of astronomy. Together with our partners, UK scientists, engineers and software experts, STFC is excited to be part of one of the most ambitious scientific projects ever undertaken."
Professor Grahame Blair, Executive Director of Programmes at the Science and Technology Facilities Council
Professor Grahame Blair, Executive Director of Programmes at STFC, said of the milestone "Today marks the beginning of a new era of astronomy. Together with our partners, UK scientists, engineers and software experts, STFC is excited to be part of one of the most ambitious scientific projects ever undertaken."
