The Astronomical Journal (Jan 2024)
The DECam Ecliptic Exploration Project (DEEP). I. Survey Description, Science Questions, and Technical Demonstration
- David E. Trilling,
- David W. Gerdes,
- Mario Jurić,
- Chadwick A. Trujillo,
- Pedro H. Bernardinelli,
- Kevin J. Napier,
- Hayden Smotherman,
- Ryder Strauss,
- Cesar Fuentes,
- Matthew J. Holman,
- Hsing Wen Lin,
- Larissa Markwardt,
- Andrew McNeill,
- Michael Mommert,
- William J. Oldroyd,
- Matthew J. Payne,
- Darin Ragozzine,
- Andrew S. Rivkin,
- Hilke Schlichting,
- Scott S. Sheppard,
- Fred C. Adams,
- Colin Orion Chandler
Affiliations
- David E. Trilling
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science, Northern Arizona University , PO Box 6010, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA ; [email protected]
- 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
- Mario Jurić
- 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]
- Pedro H. Bernardinelli
- ORCiD
- DiRAC Institute and the Department of Astronomy, University of Washington , Seattle, WA, USA
- Kevin J. Napier
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
- Hayden Smotherman
- ORCiD
- DiRAC Institute and the Department of Astronomy, University of Washington , Seattle, WA, USA
- Ryder Strauss
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science, Northern Arizona University , PO Box 6010, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA ; [email protected]
- 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
- 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
- William J. Oldroyd
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science, Northern Arizona University , PO Box 6010, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA ; [email protected]
- 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, Maryland 20723, USA
- Hilke 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
- Scott S. Sheppard
- ORCiD
- Earth and Planets Laboratory, Carnegie Institution for Science , Washington, DC 20015, USA
- 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]; DiRAC Institute and the Department of Astronomy, University of Washington , Seattle, WA, USA; LSST Interdisciplinary Network for Collaboration and Computing , 933 N. Cherry Avenue, Tucson AZ 85721, USA
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ad1529
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 167,
no. 3
p. 132
Abstract
We present here the DECam Ecliptic Exploration Project (DEEP), a 3 yr NOAO/NOIRLab Survey that was allocated 46.5 nights to discover and measure the properties of thousands of trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) to magnitudes as faint as VR ∼ 27 mag, corresponding to sizes as small as 20 km diameter. In this paper we present the science goals of this project, the experimental design of our survey, and a technical demonstration of our approach. The core of our project is “digital tracking,” in which all collected images are combined at a range of motion vectors to detect unknown TNOs that are fainter than the single exposure depth of VR ∼ 23 mag. Through this approach, we reach a depth that is approximately 2.5 mag fainter than the standard LSST “wide fast deep” nominal survey depth of 24.5 mag. DEEP will more than double the number of known TNOs with observational arcs of 24 hr or more, and increase by a factor of 10 or more the number of known small (<50 km) TNOs. We also describe our ancillary science goals, including measuring the mean shape distribution of very small main-belt asteroids, and briefly outline a set of forthcoming papers that present further aspects of and preliminary results from the DEEP program.
Keywords
