"The Next Generation of Real-Time Transient Science with Petabyte-Scale Observatories"

Supernovae sit at the nexus of multiple areas of astrophysics: they reveal the nature of the Universe's expansion, the formation of heavy elements, and the final stages of stellar evolution. Starting in 2026, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory will find thousands of supernovae every night, dwarfing current samples and ushering in a new era of unprecedented discovery. In this talk, I will outline current efforts to rapidly characterize new events from this massive data stream. I will highlight some classification techniques that focus on the environment, taking advantage of correlations between supernovae and the galaxies where they occur, and discuss the major open questions that these algorithms will clarify in the coming decade.