Flares from Space Debris in LSST Images

Abraham Loeb

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arXiv · 2401.15697

Flares from Space Debris in LSST Images

Abraham Loeb

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Abstract

Owing to the exceptional sensitivity of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, we predict that its upcoming LSST images will be contaminated by numerous flares from centimeter-scale space debris in Low Earth Orbits (LEO). Millisecond-duration flares from these LEO objects are expected to produce detectable image streaks of a few arcseconds with AB magnitudes brighter than 14.

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Abraham Loeb. 2024-01-30. Flares from Space Debris in LSST Images. https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.15697

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