Detecting NEOs using LSST
Ivezic, Zeljko
University of Washington

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) is currently by far the most ambitious proposed ground-based optical survey. The LSST system, with its 8.4m telescope and 3,200 megapixel camera will cover the entire available sky every three nights in two photometric bands to a depth of V=25 per visit. Over the proposed survey lifetime of 10 years, each sky location will be visited over 1000 times, with the total exposure time of 8 hours distributed over six broad photometric band passes. Solar System mapping is one of the four key scientific design drivers, with emphasis on efficient Near-Earth Object (NEO) and Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA) detection, orbit determination, and object characterization.
Detailed modeling of LSST operations, incorporating real historical weather and seeing data from the chosen site (Cerro Pachon, Chile), shows that LSST using its baseline design cadence could find 90% of the PHAs with diameters larger than 250 m, and 75% of those greater than 140 m within ten years. Furthermore, by optimizing about 15% of the total observing time for NEO detection, the ongoing simulations suggest that the LSST system, with its first light in 2015, can reach the 90% completeness level for 140m objects, mandated by the US Congress.