“Detectable Changes in Astronomy”

Federica Bianco, Center for Cosmology & Particle Physics, Center for Urban Science & Progress, NYU

The way we do science in general, and astronomy in particular, is changing rapidly.

I will talk about the future of astronomy at the verge of the LSST survey. As the (newly elected) LSST Science Collaborations Coordinator, I will discuss how the whole science community is preparing for this revolution: the largest astronomical survey ever planned, which starting in 2022 will image the entire southern hemisphere sky once every 3 nights to depth and spatial resolution that approach that of the Hubble Space Telescope. I will pay particular attention to the transient sky, as this is my domain of expertise and I am the co-chair of the Transients and Variable Starts LSST Science Collaboration.

Further, I will discuss how astronomy is infiltrating other sciences, and how the skills of an astronomer can be put to the service of society in Urban Science, an emerging discipline. I will describe the work of the CUSP Urban Observatory, where we use astronomical techniques to image and study city lightscapes to infer about the sociology, ecology, and economy of the city microcosm, from energy consumption, to pollution, to human circadian rhythms.