Procedures, Resources, and Selected Results of the Deep Ecliptic Survey

Abstract

The Deep Ecliptic Survey is a project whose goal is to survey a large area of the near-ecliptic region to a faint limiting magnitude (R ~ 24) in search of objects in the outer solar system. We are collecting a large homogeneous data sample from the Kitt Peak Mayall 4-m and Cerro Tololo Blanco 4-m telescopes with the Mosaic prime-focus CCD cameras. Our goal is to collect a sample of 500 objects with good orbits to further our understanding of the dynamical structure of the outer solar system. This survey has been in progress since 1998 and is responsible for 272 designated discoveries as of March 2003. We summarize our techniques, highlight recent results, and describe publically available resources.

arXiv commentEarth, Moon, and Planets, as part of First Decadal Review of the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt special issue, peer-reviewed and accepted

References in corpus (3)

• Evidence for an extended scattered disk
• Orbit Fitting and Uncertainties for Kuiper Belt Objects
• Resonance Occupation in the Kuiper Belt: Case Examples of the 5:2 and Trojan Resonances

Cited by in corpus (6)

• A Signature of Planetary Migration: The Origin of Asymmetric Capture in the 2:1 Resonance
• Unbiased Inclination Distributions for Objects in the Kuiper Belt
• The Canada-France Ecliptic Plane Survey (CFEPS) - High Latitude Component
• Color Intensity Projections: A simple way to display changes in astronomical images
• Peculiar orbits and asymmetries in extreme trans-Neptunian space
• Trans-Neptunian Space and the Post-Pluto Paradigm