South Africa and LSST

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is a USA financed observatory under construction in Chile. With first light expected in early 2025, it will undertake the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), imaging a large fraction of the available sky every few days. The results are expected to revolutionize our understanding of many aspects of astronomy, including small solar system bodies, transients and variable stars, dark energy and dark matter. They will also be synergistic with various South African facilities, including SALT and MeerKAT.

The results from the LSST will be freely available to scientists in the USA and Chile and to selected individuals elsewhere whose communities are contributing in some way to the LSST or to enabling follow-up observations for US and Chilean astronomers. Thanks to contributions from SAAO and several individual South African scientists, plus some funding from NRF and DSI, South Africa is able to appoint ten Principal Investigators (PIs), nine of whom have already been appointed, together with their associated Junior Affiliates (students, postdocs and early career scientists).

The South African LSST Programme is managed by the South African LSST Committee through the SA Program Lead and the Program Manager, who are based at SAAO.

A call to fill the tenth and final PI position was opened in 2024. This will remain open until the position is filled, but the first applications will be examined on 1 February 2025.  Our expectations of the candidates are the same as previously, but this final round will initially be open ONLY to South African candidates from historically disadvantaged communities. If no suitable candidate is identified by mid-2025 the opportunity will then be opened to anyone with a permanent appointment at a South African institution. Enquiries should go to the Program Manager.

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