6 research outputs found
Asteroid Confusions with Extremely Large Telescopes
Full text linkAsteroids can be considered as sources of contamination of point sources and
also sources of confusion noise, depending whether their presence is detected
in the image or their flux is under the detection limit. We estimate that at
low ecliptic latitudes, ~10,000--20,000 asteroids/sq. degree will be detected
with an E-ELT like telescope, while by the end of Spitzer and Herschel
missions, infrared space observatories will provide ~100,000 serendipitous
asteroid detections. The detection and identification of asteroids is therefore
an important step in survey astronomy.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, accepted by Earth, Moon and Planets, ELT
Conference (Elba, 2009 Sept.) S
The Kuiper Belt Explored by Serendipitous Stellar Occultations F. Roques A. Doressoundiram
No full textThe possibility of exploring the Kuiper belt by searching for fortuitous stellar occultations has been under development for several years. This technique has the potential to permit exploration of the Kuiper belt down to objects of subkilometer radius. High-speed photometric observations provide lightcurves in which the occultation signatures appear as very brief dips. Depending on the target stars, the occultation waveform may exhibit Fresnel diffraction effects. The star's size and the geometry of the occultation must be carefully taken into account to interpret the occultation data in terms of Kuiper belt object (KBO) size and distance. The observation programs dedicated to this type of research are described in this chapter. Three such programs have recently announced positive detections. These first results are described briefly, along with the information the data may provide. Potential results expected from these campaigns could help answer many questions concerning the Kuiper belt, its nature, and its relation with the Oort cloud: Is there an extended "cold" Kuiper belt? What is the size distribution for the Kuiper disk population? Is the maximum size of the KBO population decreasing with distance? What is the radial extent of the Kuiper belt? Is there a connection with the Oort cloud? What is the mass of the Kuiper belt? What fraction of KBOs are binaries? Are the smaller KBOs regular or elongated? These programs should also provide valuable data for theorists attempting to model solar system formation
