Collaborative Research: RECON, Probing the Outer Solar System with Occultations

该奖项资助扩大与试点项目一起开发的望远镜网络的工作，并开展观测活动，以测量外太阳系中10个外海王星天体（TNO）的大小和形状，并寻找它们周围的卫星。TNO是相对较小的（直径范围从大于冥王星到小于100公里）冻结的天体，它们绕太阳运行，超过海王星的平均距离，并且与太阳系的其他部分同时形成。研究人员计划通过观察TNO在远处星光前面经过并暂时阻挡它们来确定TNO的大小。 他们将在40个不同的公民科学家社区的帮助下，使用分布在美国西部的40个望远镜来实现这一目标，他们将通过研讨会和其他教育工作来教授和培训研究方法。 这些数据将用于检验太阳系形成的模型，还将用于对基于热辐射测量的直径进行交叉校准，将掩星样本扩大到100公里物体，并增进对掩星分布的了解。该团队还将把双星的物理和角度分离限制在比目前其他调查更小的范围内，并寻找低分离的多组分（卫星）系统。

This award funds work to expand a telescope network that was developed with a pilot project, and carry out observing campaigns to measure size and shapes of ten Trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) in the outer solar system, and search for moons around them. TNOs are relatively small (diameters range from larger than Pluto to smaller than 100km) frozen bodies that orbit the Sun beyond Neptune's average distance, and formed at the same time as the rest of our solar system. The investigators plan to determine the TNO sizes by observing them as they pass in front of, and temporarily block, distant starlight. They will do this by using 40 telescopes spread out throughout the western United States with the help of 40 different communities of citizen scientists, whom they will teach and train in research methods with workshops and other education efforts. The data will be used to test models of solar system formation.The occultation diameters will also be used to provide cross-calibration of thermal radiometry-based diameters, extend the occultation sample down to 100 km objects, and improve knowledge of albedo distributions. The team will also constrain the binary fraction to a small smaller physical and angular separation than is currently possible with other surveys, and search for low-separation multiple component (moons) systems.