The Deep Ecliptic Survey (DES) is a project to find Kuiper belt objects (KBOs), using the facilities of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO).
The principal investigator is Bob Millis. Since 1998 through the end of 2003, the survey covered 550 square degrees with sensitivity of 22.5. I.e., an estimated 50% of objects of this magnitude have been found.
The survey has also established the mean Kuiper Belt plane and introduced new formal definitions of the dynamical classes of Kuiper belt objects.
The remarkable discoveries include:
- 28978 Ixion, large plutino
- 19521 Chaos (cubewano)
- 1998 WW31, the first binary trans-Neptunian object (TNO)
- 2000 CR105, the first object with perihelion too far to be affected (scattered) by Neptune and a large semi-major axis
- (87269) 2000 OO67, remarkable for its semi-major axis of more than 500 AU and extreme eccentricity (0.96) taking the object from the inside of the Neptune's orbit to more than 1000 AU
- 2001 QR322, the first Neptune trojan
- 2002 XU93, with one of the most inclined orbits (>68°)
Famous quotes containing the words deep and/or survey:
“The poet alone knows astronomy, chemistry, vegetation, and animation, for he does not stop at these facts, but employs them as signs. He knows why the plain, or meadow of space, was strewn with these flowers we call suns, and moons, and stars; why the great deep is adorned with animals, with men, and gods; for, in every word he speaks he rides on them as the horses of thought.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.”
—Isaac Watts (1674–1748)