ADASSX

On June 23rd, 2025, the Rubin Observatory made public its first science-usable dataset, in the form of a submission to the Minor Planet Center of around 340,000 measurements of about 2100 newly designated asteroids. This batch, identified and measured over a 12-night period in later April/early May 2025 and totaling about 10 hours of observing time, was enabled by Rubin's large mirror and wide FoV camera, but also a complex software stack capable of detecting, measuring, linking, QA-ing and submitting these objects a short time after observation.

This is not an aberration. Modern survey telescopes, including small body surveys, increasingly depend on advanced algorithms to take maximum advantage of hardware available to them. And with the escalating cost and difficulty of building ever larger telescopes, it is a trend that is sure to intensify. In this presentation, I will overview what we've learned from Rubin (so far) about developing and deploying asteroid detection and linking algorithms. I will discuss how our experiences connect to broader (and rich) developments in the community, and argue that upcoming improvements in Solar System mapping will be driven by software as much as hardware advances.

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is a new NSF/DOE-funded facility on Cerro Pachón, Chile. It houses the 8.4m Simonyi Survey Telescope and the 3.2 Gigapixel LSSTCam camera. The Observatory is in the final stages of commissioning, expected to enter operations by the end of 2025. Once operational, Rubin will execute the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). Enabled by its 9.6 square degree field of view and a cadence covering the sky every 3-4 days to ~24.5 mag, the LSST dataset can dramatically advance the understanding of the Solar System and planetary defense.

This talk will present the first public Solar System-related results from Rubin's early commissioning efforts, their implications to Planetary Defense, and discuss the plans to submit Rubin single-night high-confidence tracklets for inclusion on the NEOCP. Because publication could initially increase NEOCP traffic to >100 new objects per night, at very low purity (<10%; Wagg et al. 2025), it will be important to organize community follow-up around the highest confidence and follow-up value candidates. I will present some options, and hope to initiate a discussion on what the community would like to see for successful follow-up of Rubin NEOCP submissions.