OSSOS. VII. 800+ trans-Neptunian objects-the complete data release. (2018)
Keywords :
Kuiper belt general ; surveys
Abstract:The Outer Solar System Origins Survey (OSSOS), a wide-field imaging program in 2013-2017 with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, surveyed 155deg^2^ of sky to depths of m_r_=24.1-25.2. We present 838 outer solar system discoveries that are entirely free of ephemeris bias. This increases the inventory of trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) with accurately known orbits by nearly 50%. Each minor planet has 20-60 Gaia/Pan-STARRS-calibrated astrometric measurements made over 2-5 oppositions, which allows accurate classification of their orbits within the trans-Neptunian dynamical populations. The populations orbiting in mean-motion resonance with Neptune are key to understanding Neptune's early migration. Our 313 resonant TNOs,
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All observations were acquired with the 0.184"/pixel MegaCam imager of
CFHT on Maunakea, Hawaii. The Outer Solar System Origins Survey
(OSSOS) surveyed the distant solar system objects present in eight
regions of sky ("blocks," each ~20deg^2^).
Discovery observations were made when each block of sky came to
opposition, and they set the limiting magnitudes of the survey. OSSOS
observed in the r-band ({lambda}~640nm) MegaCam filters R.9601 and
R.9602, which approximate the r-band Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)
response, and in a "w" wide-band filter, GRI.MP9605.
Considering purely the overall data set of images, the dense OSSOS
cadence provided 20-60 epochs across 2-5yr, each to an r- or w-band
~3{sigma} depth of magnitudes 24.1-25.3 across a substantial region of
sky: ~170deg^2^ in the vicinity of the ecliptic. More than 8000 images
were acquired.
Bannister+ (2016, J/AJ/152/70) described the observations of the first
two blocks (13AE and 13AO) in 2013-2015. We now describe the
observations of the remaining six blocks, which had their discovery
observations in the semesters 2013B, 2014B, 2015A, and 2015B. We also
detail observations made for OSSOS with CFHT in 2014-2017 outside of
the Large Program. See Section 2 for further details.