Cometary Science Newsletter

Issue
49
Month
April 2019
Editor
Michael S. P. Kelley (msk@astro.umd.edu)

A Software Roadmap for Solar System Science with the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope

The 8.4 m Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will provide an unprecedented view of the Solar System. LSST will detect millions of asteroids and tens of thousands of distant Solar System bodies, within approximately 16 and 24.5 mag (in r-band). Over a ten year period, most of these minor planets will receive hundreds of observations divided between 6 filters (ugrizy). What specifically LSST project will deliver for Solar System detections will soon be updated in the LSST Data Products Definition Document. The LSST Solar System Science Collaboration (SSSC; http://www.lsstsssc.org) produced a science roadmap (Schwamb et al. 2018) which outlines the collaboration's highest ranked research priorities utilizing LSST. To achieve these science goals, the SSSC has identified crucial software products and tools that will be required but will not be provided by the LSST project. These will have to be developed by the SSSC and the broader planetary community. To spur this effort, we present this list of LSST community software development tasks.

Read the full article published with the Research Notes of the AAS.

Schwamb, M. E. (Gemini Obs.), Hsieh, H. (PSI), Bannister M. T. (QUB), Bodewits, D. (Auburn), Chesley, S. R. (NASA JPL), Fraser, W. C. (QUB), Granvik, M. (Univ. Helsinki, Luleå Univ. Tech.), Jones, R. L. (UW), Jurić, M. (UW), Kelley M. S. P. (UMD), Ragozzine, D (BYU), Trilling, D. E. (NAU), Volk, K. (LPL UA), On Behalf of the LSST Solar System Science Collaboration

Conference Announcements

Announcements for cometary conferences or workshops. Limited to 2000 characters.

New Cometary Insights from the Close Approach of 46P/Wirtanen: A Symposium in Celebration of Mike A'Hearn

We are working to gauge the interest in the A'Hearn Symposium. The meeting, entitled New Cometary Insights from the Close Approach of 46P/Wirtanen: A Symposium in Celebration of Mike A'Hearn, will be held on August 6-8, 2019 at the University of Maryland.

In Mike's honor, this symposium will focus on results from observations of comet 46P/Wirtanen (and other recent bright comets) to allow the compilation of individual studies into a comprehensive understanding of the comet. We encourage cometary scientists of all types as well as anyone who knew and worked with Mike in any capacity to come and participate in this event and to reflect on his legacy.

A website has been set up to determine how many people are interested in participating.

If you plan on attending, or even think you might, please let us know, so we can finalize arrangements and set up a block of hotel rooms. There will be a registration fee (TBD), but we hope to keep it as small as possible.

The official registration site will follow shortly.