VLBI ecliptic plane survey: VEPS-1
Abstract
We present here the results of the first part of the VLBI Ecliptic Plane Survey (VEPS) program. The goal of the program is to find all compact sources within of the ecliptic plane which are suitable as calibrators for anticipated phase referencing observations of spacecraft and determine their positions with accuracy at the 1.5~nrad level. We run the program in two modes: the search mode and the refining mode. In the search mode, a complete sample of all sources brighter than 50 mJy at 5 GHz listed in the Parkes-MIT-NRAO (PMN) and Green Bank 6~cm (GB6) catalogs, except those previously detected with VLBI, is observed. In the refining mode, the positions of all ecliptic plane sources, including those found in the search mode, are improved. By October 2016, thirteen 24-hr sessions that targeted all sources brighter than 100~mJy have been observed and analyzed. Among 3320 observed target sources, 555 objects have been detected. We also conducted a number of follow-up VLBI experiments in the refining mode and improved the positions of 249 ecliptic plane sources.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1701.07287,
title = {VLBI ecliptic plane survey: VEPS-1},
author = {Fengchun Shu and Leonid Petrov and Wu Jiang and Bo Xia and Tianyu Jiang and Yuzhu Cui and Kazuhiro Takefuji and Jamie McCallum and Jim Lovell and Sang-oh Yi and Longfei Hao and Wenjun Yang and Hua Zhang and Zhong Chen and Jinling Li},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1701.07287},
year = {2017}
}
Comments
12 pages, 5 figures, 5 tables, accepted by The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series (ApJS)