학술논문
The DECam Ecliptic Exploration Project (DEEP). VI. First Multiyear Observations of Trans-Neptunian Objects
Document Type
article
Author
Hayden Smotherman; Pedro H. Bernardinelli; Stephen K. N. Portillo; Andrew J. Connolly; J. Bryce Kalmbach; Steven Stetzler; Mario Jurić; Dino Bektešević; Zachary Langford; Fred C. Adams; William J. Oldroyd; Matthew J. Holman; Colin Orion Chandler; Cesar Fuentes; David W. Gerdes; Hsing Wen Lin; Larissa Markwardt; Andrew McNeill; Michael Mommert; Kevin J. Napier; Matthew J. Payne; Darin Ragozzine; Andrew S. Rivkin; Hilke Schlichting; Scott S. Sheppard; Ryder Strauss; David E. Trilling; Chadwick A. Trujillo
Source
The Astronomical Journal, Vol 167, Iss 3, p 136 (2024)
Subject
Language
English
ISSN
1538-3881
Abstract
We present the first set of trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) observed on multiple nights in data taken from the DECam Ecliptic Exploration Project. Of these 110 TNOs, 105 do not coincide with previously known TNOs and appear to be new discoveries. Each individual detection for our objects resulted from a digital tracking search at TNO rates of motion, using two-to-four-hour exposure sets, and the detections were subsequently linked across multiple observing seasons. This procedure allows us to find objects with magnitudes m _VR ≈ 26. The object discovery processing also included a comprehensive population of objects injected into the images, with a recovery and linking rate of at least 94%. The final orbits were obtained using a specialized orbit-fitting procedure that accounts for the positional errors derived from the digital tracking procedure. Our results include robust orbits and magnitudes for classical TNOs with absolute magnitudes H ∼ 10, as well as a dynamically detached object found at 76 au (semimajor axis a ≈ 77 au). We find a disagreement between our population of classical TNOs and the CFEPS-L7 three-component model for the Kuiper Belt.