Vera C. Rubin Observatory

• Earlier this week, Asteroid Institute scientists found a collection of previously unattributed images of the newly discovered Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA) 2022 SF289 as found by the team at Vera C. Rubin Observatory.
• ADAM::Precovery was also used by the Institute to refine the orbits of 28 PHAs tracked on the NASA and ESA Risk Lists.
• Finally, the commercial company Karman+ has been working with Asteroid Institute to use precovery in finding observations of Near Earth Asteroids that could be potential targets for space missions.
• Within minutes of being notified of its discovery in ATLAS survey data by the Rubin Observatory team, Asteroid Institute engineers recovered additional observations of newly identified potentially hazardous asteroid 2022 SF289 using ADAM's precovery tool.

• I’m an astronomer who studies and has written about cosmology, black holes and exoplanets.
• As the technology has become more powerful, AI algorithms have begun helping astronomers tame massive data sets and discover new knowledge about the universe.

Better telescopes, more data

• As telescopes have continued to improve, the sheer number of celestial objects humans can see and the amount of data astronomers need to sort through have both grown exponentially, too.
• AI algorithms are the only way astronomers could ever hope to work through all of the data available to them today.
• There are a number of ways AI is proving useful in processing this data.

Picking out patterns

• AI algorithms – in particular, neural networks that use many interconnected nodes and are able to learn to recognize patterns – are perfectly suited for picking out the patterns of galaxies.
• Now the algorithms are so effective that they can classify galaxies with an accuracy of 98%.
• Now, researchers are using AI to sift through reams of data much more quickly and thoroughly than people can.
• This has allowed SETI efforts to cover more ground while also greatly reducing the number of false positive signals.

Making new discoveries

• But it is also quite powerful at finding objects or phenomena that are theorized but have not yet been discovered in the real world.
• To do this, astronomers first use AI to convert theoretical models into observational signatures – including realistic levels of noise.
• Finally, radio astronomers have also been using AI algorithms to sift through signals that don’t correspond to known phenomena.

Making predictions and plugging holes

• As in many areas of life recently, generative AI and large language models like ChatGPT are also making waves in the astronomy world.
• The team that created the first image of a black hole in 2019 used a generative AI to produce its new image.
• To do so, it first taught an AI how to recognize black holes by feeding it simulations of many kinds of black holes.

• FREMONT, Calif., June 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --Linear Integrated Systems, Inc. (Linear Systems) announced it will be exhibiting at the Sensors Converge exhibition being held June 28 and June 29 at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, CA.
• "Sensors Converge brings a unique focus to how ultra-high-performance semiconductors fit in with sensors and connectivity to build the Internet of Things," Linear Systems President Timothy S. McCune said.
• Linear Systems' ultra-low-noise semiconductors are key components in a wide array of sensor systems ranging from underwater listening to accelerometers to the Rubin Observatory.
• Linear Systems is a full-service, privately-held, 35-year-old designer and manufacturer of small-signal discrete semiconductors with millions of parts in stock.

• B612 Foundation, and its core program, the Asteroid Institute, is committed to expanding humanity's knowledge of our solar system, including the discovery of asteroids and their orbits.
• "The Foundation has a three-year funding goal to raise a further $4 million to advance the Asteroid Discovery Analysis and Mapping (ADAM) platform.
• In order to unlock Tito's Handmade Vodka matching challenge grant, B612 must raise another $1 million from donors.
• A program of B612 Foundation, the Asteroid Institute leverages advances in computer science, instrumentation, and astronomy to find and track asteroids.