The La Silla - QUEST Kuiper Belt Survey

Abstract

We describe the instrumentation and detection software and characterize the detection efficiency of an automated, all-sky, southern-hemisphere search for Kuiper Belt objects brighter than R mag 21.4. The search relies on Yale University's 160-Megapixel QUEST camera, previously used for successful surveys at Palomar that detected most of the distant dwarf planets, and now installed on the ESO 1.0-m Schmidt telescope at La Silla, Chile. Extensive upgrades were made to the telescope control system to support automation, and significant improvements were made to the camera. To date, 63 new KBOs have been discovered, including a new member of the Haumea collision family (2009 YE7) and a new distant object with inclination exceeding 70 deg (2010 WG9). In a survey covering ~7500 deg2, we have thus far detected 77 KBOs and Centaurs, more than any other full-hemisphere search to date. Using a pattern of dithered pointings, we demonstrate a search efficiency exceeding 80%. We are currently on track to complete the southern-sky survey and detect any bright KBOs that have eluded detection from the north.

20 pages, 2 tables, 7 figures

References in corpus (8)

• Detection of methane on Kuiper Belt Object (50000) Quaoar
• On a Scattered-Disk Origin for the 2003 El61 Collisional Family - an Example of the Importance of Collisions on the Dynamics of Small Bodies
• Light Curves of Dwarf Plutonian Planets and other Large Kuiper Belt Objects: Their Rotations, Phase Functions and Absolute Magnitudes
• The QUEST Large Area CCD Camera
• The Youthful Appearance of the 2003 EL61 Collisional Family
• The Palomar-Quest Digital Synoptic Sky Survey
• A Search for Distant Solar System Bodies in the Region of Sedna
• Digging Into the Surface of the Icy Dwarf Planet Eris

Cited by in corpus (17)

• The Absolute Magnitude Distribution of Kuiper Belt Objects
• A search of the full six years of the Dark Energy Survey for outer Solar System objects
• A New High Perihelion Inner Oort Cloud Object: 2015 TG387
• Interpreting the Densities of the Kuiper Belt's Dwarf Planets
• Lightcurves of 32 Large Transneptunian Objects
• Trans-Neptunian objects found in the first four years of the Dark Energy Survey
• Col-OSSOS: Color and Inclination are Correlated Throughout the Kuiper Belt
• Volumetric Survey Speed: A Figure of Merit for Transient Surveys
• A serendipitous all sky survey for bright objects in the outer solar system
• The QUEST-La Silla AGN Variability Survey
• The Small Numbers of Large Kuiper Belt Objects
• OSSOS: IV. Discovery of a dwarf planet candidate in the 9:2 resonance with Neptune
• A dwarf planet class object in the 21:5 resonance with Neptune
• Four temporary Neptune co-orbitals: (148975) 2001 XA255, (310071) 2010 KR59, (316179) 2010 EN65, and 2012 GX17
• The Peculiar Photometric Properties of 2010 WG9: A Slowly-Rotating Trans-Neptunian Object from the Oort Cloud
• Crantor, a short-lived horseshoe companion to Uranus
• Automated Transient Detection with Shapelet Analysis in Image-subtracted Data