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The Deep Ecliptic Survey: A Search for Kuiper Belt Objects and Centaurs. I. Description of Methods and Initial Results

Millis, R. L. et al. (2002)

Published
Apr 1, 2002
Journal
The Astronomical Journal · Vol. 123 · No. 4
DOI
10.1086/339481
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At a GlanceAI

First results of the Deep Ecliptic Survey: 69 new KBOs and Centaurs and what one apparition can and cannot constrain.

SummaryAI

The paper introduces the Deep Ecliptic Survey on the Mayall 4 m telescope and its technique for finding moving objects. Early nights yielded 69 KBOs and Centaurs, including likely 3:2 and 4:3 resonant objects and scattered-disk objects. Simulations show that distance and inclination can be pinned down from a single apparition, while semimajor axis and eccentricity need more. Mostly of historical interest now; the classification results are in paper II.

Method SnapshotAI

Wide-field CCD survey with follow-up astrometry and orbit-uncertainty simulations.

BackgroundAI

Basic orbital elements.

In Collections

Astronomy33 papers

The trans-Neptunian region: surveys, populations and dynamics

The region beyond Neptune holds leftovers of planet formation, and its orbital structure is a record of how the giant planets migrated. This collection goes from the systematic surveys that built the modern census (Deep Ecliptic Survey, CFEPS, OSSOS, the Dark Energy Survey search) through dynamical classification of thousands of objects and population estimates for Neptune's resonances, to resonance sticking, the scattered disk, the coupling between Kozai (ZLK) dynamics and mean-motion resonances, and the distant clustered orbits. It ends with what the next surveys (DEEP, CLASSY, LSST) are designed to answer. Terms: * TNO: trans-Neptunian object * MMR: mean-motion resonance * ZLK(R): von Zeipel-Lidov-Kozai (resonance) * DES: two different projects share this acronym here, the Deep Ecliptic Survey (2002, 2005) and the Dark Energy Survey (2022)

ES
Evgeny Smirnov