Flares from Space Debris in LSST Images
arXiv:2401.15697
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.
arXiv comment3 pages, submitted for publication in an AAS Journal