How scientists found thousands of asteroids hidden in plain sight
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory hasn’t been around long, but its contributions to space science have been immeasurable, many of which we’ve covered right here on VICE. In less than a year of operation, it has made a number of incredible discoveries and recently added another one to the list. Tens of thousands of discoveries, to be exact.
As announced in a press release published on the observatory’s website, Rubin scientists have identified more than 11,000 new asteroids in a single submission to the International Astronomical Union Minor Planet Center. It is the largest batch reported in the past year. Alongside them were over 80,000 previously known asteroids, including objects that had disappeared because their orbits could not be traced.
To be clear, this is an absolutely massive space object discovery, and it’s all thanks to Rubin’s combination of a massive mirror. That basically makes it the largest digital camera ever built. Researchers pair it with software designed to sift through millions of moving points of light without becoming overloaded with data.
Highly advanced space observatory finds thousands of new asteroids
Among the discoveries are 33 new near-Earth objects, aka asteroids, whose orbits bring them relatively close to our planet. None of them pose a threat, but they do present an interesting, if slightly unnerving prospect: If it took constructing one of the most advanced space telescopes humans have ever assembled just to see these things, what else is lurking out there that we’ve never noticed, and how many of these have almost missed us until now?
Scientists estimate that only 40 percent of potentially dangerous medium-sized objects have been identified. Rubin is expected to close this gap in a big way, with projections of up to 90,000 additional near-Earth discoveries as it ramps up to full operation.
The observatory also maps the edges of the solar system. In less than two months, it has already identified about 380 trans-Neptunian objects, which are the icy space objects that hang above Neptune. For context, humanity has collectively found 5,000 trans-Newtonian objects over the past 30 years. Rubin found 380 of them in less than a year.
Again, Rubin isn’t even fully online yet. When it does, this scale and amount of discovery will become so routine that research teams will likely be overwhelmed by the number of objects to study, as it gives us a clearer, extremely vivid picture of what’s going on above our heads.
