NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory Spots Record-Breaking Asteroid in Pre-Survey Observations

First peer-reviewed paper using LSST Camera data identifies an asteroid, nearly the size of eight football fields, rotating every two minutes. Astronomers analyzing data from NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, jointly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, have discovered the fastest-ever spinning asteroid with a diameter over half a kilometer — a feat uniquely enabled by Rubin. The study provides crucial information about asteroid..