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Search for small trans-Neptunian objects by the TAOS project

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2006

W.P. Chen ,
C. Alcock ,
T. Axelrod ,
F.B. Bianco ,
Y.I. Byun ,
Y.H. Chang ,
K.H. Cook ,
R. Dave ,
J. Giammarco  and
D.W. Kim
...Show all authors
W.P. Chen
Affiliation:
Institute of Astronomy, National Central University, Taiwan, email: wchen@astro.ncu.edu.tw
C. Alcock
Affiliation:
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, USA
T. Axelrod
Affiliation:
University of Arizona, USA
F.B. Bianco
Affiliation:
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, USA Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, USA
Y.I. Byun
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy, Yonsei University, Korea
Y.H. Chang
Affiliation:
Institute of Astronomy, National Central University, Taiwan, email: wchen@astro.ncu.edu.tw
K.H. Cook
Affiliation:
IGPP, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, USA
R. Dave
Affiliation:
Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, USA
J. Giammarco
Affiliation:
Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, USA
D.W. Kim
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy, Yonsei University, Korea
S.K. King
Affiliation:
Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica, Taiwan
T. Lee
Affiliation:
Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica, Taiwan
M. Lehner
Affiliation:
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, USA
C.C. Lin
Affiliation:
Institute of Astronomy, National Central University, Taiwan, email: wchen@astro.ncu.edu.tw
H.C. Lin
Affiliation:
Institute of Astronomy, National Central University, Taiwan, email: wchen@astro.ncu.edu.tw
J.J. Lissauer
Affiliation:
NASA Ames Research Center, USA
S. Marshall
Affiliation:
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, USA
N. Meinshausen
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley, USA
S. Mondal
Affiliation:
Institute of Astronomy, National Central University, Taiwan, email: wchen@astro.ncu.edu.tw
I. de Pater
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley, USA
R. Porrata
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley, USA
J. Rice
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley, USA
M.E. Schwamb
Affiliation:
Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, USA California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA
A. Wang
Affiliation:
Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica, Taiwan
S.Y. Wang
Affiliation:
Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica, Taiwan
C.Y. Wen
Affiliation:
Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica, Taiwan
Z.W. Zhang
Affiliation:
Institute of Astronomy, National Central University, Taiwan, email: wchen@astro.ncu.edu.tw
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Abstract

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The Taiwan-America Occultation Survey (TAOS) aims to determine the number of small icy bodies in the outer reach of the Solar System by means of stellar occultation. An array of 4 robotic small (D=0.5 m), wide-field (f/1.9) telescopes have been installed at Lulin Observatory in Taiwan to simultaneously monitor some thousand of stars for such rare occultation events. Because a typical occultation event by a TNO a few km across will last for only a fraction of a second, fast photometry is necessary. A special CCD readout scheme has been devised to allow for stellar photometry taken a few times per second. Effective analysis pipelines have been developed to process stellar light curves and to correlate any possible flux changes among all telescopes. A few billion photometric measurements have been collected since the routine survey began in early 2005. Our preliminary result of a very low detection rate suggests a deficit of small TNOs down to a few km size, consistent with the extrapolation of some recent studies of larger (30–100 km) TNOs.

Keywords

PhotometryoccultationsTrans Neptunian objectscomets, discoverysurveys
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 2 , Symposium S236: Near Earth Objects, our Celestial Neighbors: Opportunity and Risk , August 2006 , pp. 65 - 68
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2007

References

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