Faster, Better, Deeper: Discovery and Study of the Faintest Kuiper Belt Objects using Novel Computational Tools

The solar system beyond Neptune is home to thousands of small, icy bodies known as trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) that are believed to be largely unchanged since the giant planets coalesced from the proto-planetary disk and migrated to their present locations. TNOs constitute an archaeological window into the solar system’s formation and early evolution. Using a machine-learning-based shift-and-stack pipeline, the team has detected TNOs roughly two magnitudes fainter than any previous survey of comparable area. This project will extend this work and enhance its detection sensitivity to discover fainter objects. The team will produce source catalogs of transient and moving objects and release software tools for the benefit of the broader astronomical community. This project will directly fund the Ph.D. thesis of one graduate student and will involve several undergraduate students who will acquire skills in data analysis, astronomical observing, mentoring, and in presenting results through publications, posters, and talks. The DECam Ecliptic Exploration Project (DEEP) is a NOIRlab survey that was awarded 46.5 nights on the 4-meter Blanco telescope at CTIO to explore the faintest trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) ever observed from Earth. The full DEEP data that will be analyzed in the proposed work will achieve single-night detections of nearly 7,000 TNOs, which will enable measurements of physical and dynamical properties to be broken down by dynamical subclass. The team will develop and implement a novel shift-and-stack formulation called HelioStack, an algorithm that efficiently links DEEP detections across multiple oppositions. Using HelioStack, the project will obtain multi-opposition orbits of roughly 400 TNOs, which will be the largest sample of ultra-faint (r ~ 26) TNOs to date. DEEP will also discover roughly 20,000 new asteroids and provide time-series photometry for these objects. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.