The Planetary Science Journal (Jan 2024)
Candidate Distant Trans-Neptunian Objects Detected by the New Horizons Subaru TNO Survey
- Wesley C. Fraser,
- Simon B. Porter,
- Lowell Peltier,
- JJ Kavelaars,
- Anne J. Verbiscer,
- Marc W. Buie,
- S. Alan Stern,
- John R. Spencer,
- Susan D. Benecchi,
- Tsuyoshi Terai,
- Takashi Ito,
- Fumi Yoshida,
- David W. Gerdes,
- Kevin J. Napier,
- Hsing Wen Lin,
- Stephen D. J. Gwyn,
- Hayden Smotherman,
- Sebastien Fabbro,
- Kelsi N. Singer,
- Amanda M. Alexander,
- Ko Arimatsu,
- Maria E. Banks,
- Veronica J. Bray,
- Mohamed Ramy El-Maarry,
- Chelsea L. Ferrell,
- Tetsuharu Fuse,
- Florian Glass,
- Timothy R. Holt,
- Peng Hong,
- Ryo Ishimaru,
- Perianne E. Johnson,
- Tod R. Lauer,
- Rodrigo Leiva,
- Patryk S. Lykawka,
- Raphael Marschall,
- Jorge I. Núñez,
- Marc Postman,
- Eric Quirico,
- Alyssa R. Rhoden,
- Anna M. Simpson,
- Paul Schenk,
- Michael F. Skrutskie,
- Andrew J. Steffl,
- Henry Throop
Affiliations
- Wesley C. Fraser
- ORCiD
- National Research Council of Canada, Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre , 5071 W. Saanich Road, Victoria, BC V9E 2E7, Canada ; [email protected],; Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Victoria , Elliott Building, 3800 Finnerty Road, Victoria, BC V8P 5C2, Canada
- Simon B. Porter
- ORCiD
- Southwest Research Institute , 1301 Walnut Street., Suite 400, Boulder, CO 80302, USA
- Lowell Peltier
- ORCiD
- National Research Council of Canada, Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre , 5071 W. Saanich Road, Victoria, BC V9E 2E7, Canada ; [email protected],; Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Victoria , Elliott Building, 3800 Finnerty Road, Victoria, BC V8P 5C2, Canada
- JJ Kavelaars
- ORCiD
- National Research Council of Canada, Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre , 5071 W. Saanich Road, Victoria, BC V9E 2E7, Canada ; [email protected],; Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Victoria , Elliott Building, 3800 Finnerty Road, Victoria, BC V8P 5C2, Canada; Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of British Columbia , 6224 Agricultural Road, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1, Canada
- Anne J. Verbiscer
- ORCiD
- Southwest Research Institute , 1301 Walnut Street., Suite 400, Boulder, CO 80302, USA; Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia , P.O. Box 400325, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4325, USA
- Marc W. Buie
- ORCiD
- Southwest Research Institute , 1301 Walnut Street., Suite 400, Boulder, CO 80302, USA
- S. Alan Stern
- ORCiD
- Southwest Research Institute , 1301 Walnut Street., Suite 400, Boulder, CO 80302, USA
- John R. Spencer
- Southwest Research Institute , 1301 Walnut Street., Suite 400, Boulder, CO 80302, USA
- Susan D. Benecchi
- ORCiD
- Planetary Science Institute , 1700 East Fort Lowell, Suite 106, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA
- Tsuyoshi Terai
- ORCiD
- Subaru Telescope, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan 650 North A‘ohoku Place , Hilo, HI 96720, USA
- Takashi Ito
- ORCiD
- Center for Computational Astrophysics , National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Osawa 2-21-1, Mitaka, Tokyo, 181-8588, Japan
- Fumi Yoshida
- ORCiD
- University of Occupational and Environmental Health , 1-1 Iseigaoka, Yahata, Kitakyushu 807-8555, Japan; Planetary Exploration Research Center , Chiba Institute of Technology, 2-17-1 Tsudanuma, Narashino, Chiba 275-0016, Japan
- 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
- Kevin J. Napier
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
- Hsing Wen Lin
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
- Stephen D. J. Gwyn
- ORCiD
- National Research Council of Canada, Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre , 5071 W. Saanich Road, Victoria, BC V9E 2E7, Canada ; [email protected],
- Hayden Smotherman
- ORCiD
- DIRAC Institute, Department of Astronomy, University of Washington , 3910 15th Avenue NE, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
- Sebastien Fabbro
- ORCiD
- National Research Council of Canada, Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre , 5071 W. Saanich Road, Victoria, BC V9E 2E7, Canada ; [email protected],; Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Victoria , Elliott Building, 3800 Finnerty Road, Victoria, BC V8P 5C2, Canada
- Kelsi N. Singer
- ORCiD
- Southwest Research Institute , 1301 Walnut Street., Suite 400, Boulder, CO 80302, USA
- Amanda M. Alexander
- ORCiD
- Southwest Research Institute , 1301 Walnut Street., Suite 400, Boulder, CO 80302, USA
- Ko Arimatsu
- ORCiD
- National Astronomical Observatory of Japan , Tokyo, Japan
- Maria E. Banks
- ORCiD
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center , 8800 Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
- Veronica J. Bray
- ORCiD
- Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona , 1541 University Boulevard, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
- Mohamed Ramy El-Maarry
- ORCiD
- Department of Earth Sciences, and Planetary Science Research Group, Khalifa University , Abu Dhabi, UAE
- Chelsea L. Ferrell
- ORCiD
- Independent Astronomer
- Tetsuharu Fuse
- National Astronomical Observatory of Japan , Tokyo, Japan
- Florian Glass
- ORCiD
- Independent Astronomer
- Timothy R. Holt
- ORCiD
- Centre for Astrophysics, University of Southern Queensland , West Street, Darling Heights QLD 4350, Australia
- Peng Hong
- Planetary Exploration Research Center , Chiba Institute of Technology, 2-17-1 Tsudanuma, Narashino, Chiba 275-0016, Japan
- Ryo Ishimaru
- ORCiD
- Planetary Exploration Research Center , Chiba Institute of Technology, 2-17-1 Tsudanuma, Narashino, Chiba 275-0016, Japan
- Perianne E. Johnson
- ORCiD
- Institute for Geophysics, Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas at Austin ,10100 Burnet Road (R2200), Austin, TX, USA
- Tod R. Lauer
- ORCiD
- NOIRLab , P.O. Box 26732, Tucson, AZ 85726, USA
- Rodrigo Leiva
- ORCiD
- Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía , Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Glorieta de la Astronomía s/n, 18008 Granada, Spain
- Patryk S. Lykawka
- ORCiD
- Kindai University , Shinkamikosaka 228-3, Higashiosaka, Osaka, 577-0813, Japan
- Raphael Marschall
- ORCiD
- CNRS, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur , Laboratoire J.-L. Lagrange, CS 34229, 06304 Nice Cedex 4, France
- Jorge I. Núñez
- ORCiD
- Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory , 11100 Johns Hopkins Road, Laurel, MD 20723-6099, USA
- Marc Postman
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Eric Quirico
- ORCiD
- Université Grenoble Alpes , CNRS, Institut de Planetologie et Astrophysique de Grenoble (IPAG), UMR 5274, Grenoble, F-38041, France
- Alyssa R. Rhoden
- ORCiD
- Southwest Research Institute , 1301 Walnut Street., Suite 400, Boulder, CO 80302, USA
- Anna M. Simpson
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA; Department of Physics and Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Paul Schenk
- ORCiD
- Lunar and Planetary Institute (USRA) , Houston, TX 77058, USA
- Michael F. Skrutskie
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia , P.O. Box 400325, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4325, USA
- Andrew J. Steffl
- ORCiD
- Southwest Research Institute , 1301 Walnut Street., Suite 400, Boulder, CO 80302, USA
- Henry Throop
- ORCiD
- Independent Astronomer
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/PSJ/ad6f9e
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 5,
no. 10
p. 227
Abstract
We report the detection of 239 trans-Neptunian objects discovered through the ongoing New Horizons survey for distant minor bodies being performed with the Hyper Suprime-Cam mosaic imager on the Subaru Telescope. These objects were discovered in images acquired with either the r 2 or the recently commissioned EB- gri filter using shift and stack routines. Due to the extremely high stellar density of the search region downstream of the spacecraft, new machine learning techniques had to be developed to manage the extremely high false-positive rate of bogus candidates produced from the shift and stack routines. We report discoveries as faint as r 2 ∼ 26.5. We highlight an overabundance of objects found at heliocentric distances R ≳ 70 au compared to expectations from modeling of the known outer solar system. If confirmed, these objects betray the presence of a heretofore-unrecognized abundance of distant objects that can help explain a number of other observations that otherwise remain at odds with the known Kuiper Belt, including detections of serendipitous stellar occultations, and recent results from the Student Dust Counter on board the New Horizons spacecraft.
Keywords
