Exploring the Outer Solar System with the ESSENCE Supernova Survey

Abstract

We report the discovery and orbit determination of 14 trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) from the ESSENCE Supernova Survey difference imaging dataset. Two additional objects discovered in a similar search of the SDSS-II Supernova Survey database were recovered in this effort. ESSENCE repeatedly observed fields far from the Solar System ecliptic (-21 deg < beta < -5 deg), reaching limiting magnitudes per observation of I~23.1 and R~23.7. We examine several of the newly detected objects in detail, including 2003 UC_414 which orbits entirely between Uranus and Neptune and lies very close to a dynamical region that would make it stable for the lifetime of the Solar System. 2003 SS_422 and 2007 TA_418 have high eccentricities and large perihelia, making them candidate members of an outer class of trans-Neptunian objects. We also report a new member of the ''extended'' or ''detached'' scattered disk, 2004 VN_112, and verify the stability of its orbit using numerical simulations. This object would have been visible to ESSENCE for only ~2% of its orbit, suggesting a vast number of similar objects across the sky. We emphasize that off-ecliptic surveys are optimal for uncovering the diversity of such objects, which in turn will constrain the history of gravitational influences that shaped our early Solar System.

5 pages, 1 table, accepted for publication in ApJL

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• OSSOS: V. Diffusion in the orbit of a high-perihelion distant Solar System object
• Evaluating the Dynamical Stability of Outer Solar System Objects in the Presence of Planet Nine
• Discovery of a New Member of the Inner Oort Cloud from The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey
• Visible spectra of (474640) 2004 VN112-2013 RF98 with OSIRIS at the 10.4 m GTC: evidence for binary dissociation near aphelion among the extreme trans-Neptunian objects
• The Case for a Large-Scale Occultation Network
• Early Stellar Flybys are Unlikely: Improved Constraints from Sednoids and Large-$q$ TNOs
• The Delegate Survey: KOALA/AAOmega-IFU spectroscopy of three nearby dwarf galaxies