The Vera Rubin Observatory’s large synoptic telescope is expected to be operational as early as 2025. This astronomical instrument will have a uniquely wide field of view. Scientists expect that it will be able to efficiently find interstellar objects.
Interstellar objects
Almost all of the objects we observe in our System were born in it several billion years ago. Despite the fact that the possibility of the arrival here of “guests” from other star systems has not been ruled out for several decades, so far we have observed only two of them — the asteroid Oumuamua and Comet Borisov.
The question immediately arises: if both of these objects were identified as interstellar in a relatively short period of time, and we saw nothing before that, what is the reason for this situation? There were none, or our observation tools were imperfect.
A recent paper published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics argues that it’s about the latter. We simply don’t observe a sufficient number of objects for so long that it would be enough to find interstellar visitors among them. However, an astronomical instrument is about to appear that they will not be able to hide from.
Vera Rubin Observatory
We are talking about the synoptic telescope of the Vera Rubin Observatory. Its creation has been underway for more than a decade and in 2025 this work should be completed, and it will be put into operation. The peculiarity of this instrument will be that it, with a rather large diameter of the main mirror of 8.4 meters, will not study in detail certain distant objects in space.
Instead, it will look across the entire sky. Its field of view is equal to seven angular sizes of the moon in the sky. Scientists believe that at these rates, it will be able to see interstellar objects before they cross Neptune’s orbit.
The only problem is that the total number of objects that the Vera Rubin Observatory will be able to track is extremely large. Each night, this telescope will generate more than a petabyte of “raw” observational data. And at first glance, it is impossible to recognize objects in the tiny dots that have come to us from outside the Solar System. They are simply no different from Kuiper belt objects that for some reason have changed their orbit and are now heading toward the Sun.
It is quite possible to identify interstellar objects among them. To do this, it is necessary to clearly define their orbit. That means doing observations over a period of months or years. So it takes a lot of work to accomplish this.
Artificial intelligence
In solving such a problem, astronomers have two ways – traditional and modern. The first one is to involve a large number of scientific volunteers in information processing. The second is to use artificial intelligence.
Attracting amateurs is a proven method, but relatively slow and expensive. Artificial neural networks can do the same job much more efficiently. However, scientists note that the result of their processing contains a large number of errors and this is an argument against this method.
But still, researchers believe that in the case of the Vera Rubin telescope and the search for interstellar objects, we should use artificial neural networks. They have checked their work and believe that the number of errors present is not a problem.
Provided by phys.org
