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.
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0309251,
title = {Procedures, Resources, and Selected Results of the Deep Ecliptic Survey},
author = {M. W. Buie and R. L. Millis and L. H. Wasserman and J. L. Elliot and S. D. Kern and K. B. Clancy and E. I. Chiang and A. B. Jordan and K. J. Meech and R. M. Wagner and D. E. Trilling},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0309251},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
Earth, Moon, and Planets, as part of First Decadal Review of the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt special issue, peer-reviewed and accepted