Exploring the Outer Solar System with the ESSENCE Supernova Survey

TL;DR

This study discovers and characterizes 14 trans-Neptunian objects using the ESSENCE Supernova Survey, revealing diverse orbital properties and emphasizing the importance of off-ecliptic surveys for understanding the outer Solar System's history.

Contribution

First to utilize the ESSENCE Supernova Survey data for discovering and analyzing TNOs, expanding knowledge of their orbital characteristics and stability.

Findings

14 new TNOs discovered and characterized

Identification of objects with high eccentricities and large perihelia

Evidence suggesting many similar objects remain undetected across the sky

Abstract

We report the discovery and orbit determination of 14 trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) from the ESSENCE Supernova Survey difference imaging dataset. Two additional objects discovered in a similar search of the SDSS-II Supernova Survey database were recovered in this effort. ESSENCE repeatedly observed fields far from the Solar System ecliptic (-21 deg < beta < -5 deg), reaching limiting magnitudes per observation of I~23.1 and R~23.7. We examine several of the newly detected objects in detail, including 2003 UC_414 which orbits entirely between Uranus and Neptune and lies very close to a dynamical region that would make it stable for the lifetime of the Solar System. 2003 SS_422 and 2007 TA_418 have high eccentricities and large perihelia, making them candidate members of an outer class of trans-Neptunian objects. We also report a new member of the ''extended'' or ''detached'' scattered disk, 2004 VN_112, and verify the stability of its orbit using numerical simulations. This object would have been visible to ESSENCE for only ~2% of its orbit, suggesting a vast number of similar objects across the sky. We emphasize that off-ecliptic surveys are optimal for uncovering the diversity of such objects, which in turn will constrain the history of gravitational influences that shaped our early Solar System.