The Astronomical Journal (Jan 2024)
The DECam Ecliptic Exploration Project (DEEP). IV. Constraints on the Shape Distribution of Bright Trans-Neptunian Objects
- Ryder Strauss,
- David E. Trilling,
- Pedro H. Bernardinelli,
- Christiano Beach,
- William J. Oldroyd,
- Scott S. Sheppard,
- Hilke E. Schlichting,
- David W. Gerdes,
- Cesar Fuentes,
- Matthew J. Holman,
- Mario Jurić,
- Hsing Wen Lin,
- Larissa Markwardt,
- Andrew McNeill,
- Michael Mommert,
- Kevin J. Napier,
- Matthew J. Payne,
- Darin Ragozzine,
- Andrew S. Rivkin,
- Hayden Smotherman,
- Chadwick A. Trujillo,
- Fred C. Adams,
- Colin Orion Chandler
Affiliations
- Ryder Strauss
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science, Northern Arizona University , PO Box 6010, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA ; [email protected]
- David E. Trilling
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science, Northern Arizona University , PO Box 6010, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA ; [email protected]
- Pedro H. Bernardinelli
- ORCiD
- DiRAC Institute and the Department of Astronomy, University of Washington , Seattle, WA, USA
- Christiano Beach
- Department of Physics, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
- William J. Oldroyd
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science, Northern Arizona University , PO Box 6010, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA ; [email protected]
- Scott S. Sheppard
- ORCiD
- Earth and Planets Laboratory, Carnegie Institution for Science , Washington, DC 20015, USA
- Hilke E. Schlichting
- ORCiD
- Department of Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences, University of California Los Angeles , 595 Charles E. Young Drive East, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- David W. Gerdes
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA; Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
- Cesar Fuentes
- ORCiD
- Departamento de Astronomía, Universidad de Chile , Camino del Observatorio 1515, Las Condes, Santiago, Chile
- Matthew J. Holman
- ORCiD
- Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, MS 51, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Mario Jurić
- ORCiD
- DiRAC Institute and the Department of Astronomy, University of Washington , Seattle, WA, USA
- Hsing Wen Lin
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
- Larissa Markwardt
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
- Andrew McNeill
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science, Northern Arizona University , PO Box 6010, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA ; [email protected]; Department of Physics, Lehigh University , 16 Memorial Drive East, Bethlehem, PA, 18015, USA
- Michael Mommert
- ORCiD
- School of Computer Science, University of St. Gallen , Rosenbergstrasse 30, CH-9000 St. Gallen, Switzerland
- Kevin J. Napier
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
- Matthew J. Payne
- ORCiD
- Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, MS 51, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Darin Ragozzine
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Brigham Young University , Provo, UT 84602, USA
- Andrew S. Rivkin
- ORCiD
- Applied Physics Lab, Johns Hopkins University , 11100 Johns Hopkins Road, Laurel, MD 20723, USA
- Hayden Smotherman
- ORCiD
- DiRAC Institute and the Department of Astronomy, University of Washington , Seattle, WA, USA
- Chadwick A. Trujillo
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science, Northern Arizona University , PO Box 6010, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA ; [email protected]
- Fred C. Adams
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA; Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
- Colin Orion Chandler
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science, Northern Arizona University , PO Box 6010, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA ; [email protected]; LSST Interdisciplinary Network for Collaboration and Computing, 933 N. Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ad1526
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 167,
no. 3
p. 135
Abstract
We present the methods and results from the discovery and photometric measurement of 26 bright VR > 24 trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) during the first year (2019–20) of the DECam Ecliptic Exploration Project (DEEP). The DEEP survey is an observational TNO survey with wide sky coverage, high sensitivity, and a fast photometric cadence. We apply a computer vision technique known as a progressive probabilistic Hough transform to identify linearly moving transient sources within DEEP photometric catalogs. After subsequent visual vetting, we provide a photometric and astrometric catalog of our TNOs. By modeling the partial lightcurve amplitude distribution of the DEEP TNOs using Monte Carlo techniques, we find our data to be most consistent with an average TNO axis ratio b / a < 0.5, implying a population dominated by non-spherical objects. Based on ellipsoidal gravitational stability arguments, we find our data to be consistent with a TNO population containing a high fraction of contact binaries or other extremely non-spherical objects. We also discuss our data as evidence that the expected binarity fraction of TNOs may be size-dependent.
Keywords
