The article “Revolutionizing Our Knowledge: The Rubin Observatory’s Groundbreaking Discoveries in the Solar System” reveals that millions of new solar system objects will be detected by the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, set to revolutionize our knowledge of the solar system’s small bodies – asteroids, comets, and other minor planets.

A team of astronomers from across the globe, led by Queen’s University Belfast, created Sorcha, an innovative new open-source software used to predict what discoveries are likely to be made. Sorcha is the first end-to-end simulator that ingests Rubin’s planned observing schedule, applying assumptions on how Rubin Observatory sees and detects astronomical sources in its images with the best model of what the solar system and its small body reservoirs look like today.

The team’s simulations show that Rubin will map:

* 127,000 near-Earth objects – asteroids and comets whose orbits cross or approach Earth. This will cut the risk of undetected asteroid impact of catastrophic proportions by at least two times.
* Over 5 million main-belt asteroids, up from about 1.4 million, with precise color and rotation data on roughly one in three asteroids within the survey’s first years.
* 109,000 Jupiter Trojans, bodies sharing Jupiter’s orbit at stable “Lagrange” points – more than seven times the number cataloged today.
* 37,000 trans-Neptunian objects, residents of the distant Kuiper Belt – nearly 10 times the current census.
* Approximately 1,500-2,000 Centaurs, bodies on short-lived giant planet-crossing orbits in the middle solar system.

The Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to fill in the missing pieces of our solar system. With this data, we’ll be able to update the textbooks of solar system formation and vastly improve our ability to spot – and potentially deflect – the asteroids that could threaten Earth.

The Sorcha code is open-source and freely available with the simulated catalogs, animations at https://sorcha.space. By making these resources available, the Sorcha team has enabled researchers worldwide to refine their tools and be ready for the flood of LSST data that Rubin will generate, advancing the understanding of the small bodies that illuminate the solar system like never before.

The discovery of an object called ASKAP J1832-0911 has left astronomers puzzled. This mysterious entity emits pulses of radio waves and X-rays for two minutes every 44 minutes. What makes this finding even more intriguing is that it’s the first time such an object, known as a long-period transient (LPT), has been detected in X-rays.

The team behind this discovery used the ASKAP radio telescope to detect the radio signals, which they then correlated with X-ray pulses detected by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. This coincidence of observations allowed them to confirm that ASKAP J1832-0911 is indeed emitting both types of radiation.

LPTs are a relatively recent discovery, with only ten such objects found so far. Scientists still have no clear explanation for what causes these signals or why they ‘switch on’ and ‘switch off’ at such long, regular intervals. Some theories suggest that ASKAP J1832-0911 could be a magnetar or a pair of stars in a binary system with one star being a highly magnetised white dwarf.

However, even these theories don’t fully explain what’s being observed. This discovery might indicate the existence of new types of physics or models of stellar evolution. By detecting objects like ASKAP J1832-0911 using both X-rays and radio waves, scientists hope to find more examples and gain a better understanding of their nature.

The discovery of ASKAP J1832-0911 is not only significant for the scientific community but also showcases an incredible teamwork effort between researchers across the globe. The study’s findings have been published in Nature, and the object itself is located in our Milky Way galaxy about 15,000 light-years from Earth.

The crater’s secrets are finally within reach. A team of planetary scientists has made a groundbreaking discovery that allows us to peer beneath the dusty surface of Mars and other planetary bodies. By studying the layers of rock blasted out of craters by impacts, researchers can now infer the properties of materials hidden beneath the impact point.

Historically, scientists have relied on the size and shape of impact craters to understand what lies beneath. However, this new study reveals that the ejecta blanket – a ring of material thrown out during an impact – is sensitive to subsurface properties as well. This gives us a fresh observable on the surface to help constrain materials present underground.

The research was led by Aleksandra Sokolowska, a UKRI fellow at Imperial College London. While working as a postdoctoral researcher at Brown University, she collaborated with Ingrid Daubar and Gareth Collins to develop computer simulations that capture the physics of planetary impacts. These simulations allowed Sokolowska to test various subsurface materials and layering patterns, predicting how they would affect the distance debris travels.

The results showed that different subsurface materials produce distinct ejecta patterns. To add credibility to these findings, the team analyzed two fresh impact craters on Mars, confirming that differences in ejecta radius can be measured from orbit with cameras like HiRISE onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

One of the craters was located over solid bedrock, while the other had subsurface ice. Consistent with model predictions, the crater on the icy subsurface had a much smaller ejecta blanket than the one on bedrock. These findings help confirm that differences in ejecta radius reflect known subsurface properties.

This breakthrough method could be useful for several current and upcoming spacecraft missions, including the European Space Agency’s Hera spacecraft arriving at Dimorphos, an asteroid hit by NASA to test deflection capabilities. Sokolowska suggests that the ejecta around this crater might hold valuable information about the asteroid’s interior.