This artist’s impression illustrates an interstellar object rapidly approaching our Solar System. The object, ejected from its home planetary system long ago, traveled through interstellar space for billions of years before briefly passing through our cosmic neighborhood. Rubin Observatory will reveal many of these previously unknown interstellar visitors.
Credit: Rubin Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. daSilva/ M. Zamani Vera C.
Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time will revolutionize Solar System science by revealing a population of previously undiscovered interstellar comets and asteroids passing through our cosmic neighborhood Many as-yet-undiscovered interstellar objects exist throughout our Milky Way Galaxy: comets and asteroids that have been ejected from their home star systems. Some of these objects pass through our Solar System, bringing valuable information about how planetary systems form and evolve. Currently, only two such interstellar visitors have been discovered: 1I/ʻOumuamua and comet 2I/Borisov.
Rubin’s upcoming Legacy Survey of Space and Time will show us many more. Advancing Astronomical Techniques With Rubin Observatory We’ve learned a lot about the biggest, brightest objects in our Solar System using existing instruments and telescopes. However, astronomers like Michele Bannister, Rutherford Discovery Fellow at the University of Canterbury in Aotearoa New Zealand and member of the Rubin Observatory/LSST Solar System Science Collabor.