The Canada–France Ecliptic Plane Survey (CFEPS)—High-latitude Component

Journal Article · Mon May 01 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Astronomical Journal (Online)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/AA6AA5· OSTI ID:22663662

Petit, J-M. ^[1]; Kavelaars, J. J. ^[2]; Gladman, B. J.; Van Laerhoven, C.; Lawler, S. M. ^[3]; Jones, R. L. ^[4]; Parker, J. Wm.; Bieryla, A. ^[5]; Pike, R. E. ^[6]; Nicholson, P. ^[7]; Ashby, M. L. N. ^[8]

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1. Institut UTINAM, CNRS-UMR 6213, Observatoire de Besançon, BP 1615, F-25010 Besançon Cedex (France)
2. Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics, National Research Council of Canada, Victoria, BC V9E 2E7 (Canada)
3. Department of Physics and Astronomy, 6224 Agricultural Road, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC (Canada)
4. Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
5. Planetary Science Directorate, Southwest Research Institute, 1050 Walnut Street, Suite 300, Boulder, CO 80302 (United States)
6. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC (Canada)
7. Cornell University, Space Sciences Building, Ithaca, NY 14853 (United States)
8. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)

The High Ecliptic Latitude (HiLat) extension of the Canada–France Ecliptic Plane Survey (CFEPS), conducted from 2006 June to 2009 July, discovered a set of Trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) that we report here. The HiLat component was designed to address one of the shortcomings of ecliptic surveys (like CFEPS), their low sensitivity to high-inclination objects. We searched 701 deg{sup 2} of sky ranging from 12° to 85° ecliptic latitude and discovered 24 TNOs, with inclinations between 15° and 104°. This survey places a very strong constraint on the inclination distribution of the hot component of the classical Kuiper Belt, ruling out any possibility of a large intrinsic fraction of highly inclined orbits. Using the parameterization of Brown, the HiLat sample combined with CFEPS imposes a width 14° ≤  σ  ≤ 15.°5, with a best match for σ  = 14.°5. HiLat discovered the first retrograde TNO, 2008 KV{sub 42}, with an almost polar orbit with inclination 104°, and (418993) = 2009 MS{sub 9}, a scattering object with perihelion in the region of Saturn’s influence, with a  ∼ 400 au and i  = 68°.

• OSTI ID: 22663662
• Journal Information: Astronomical Journal (Online), Vol. 153, Issue 5; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1538-3881
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
CANADA
ECLIPSE
FRANCE
INCLINATION
LIMITING VALUES
ORBITS
SATURN PLANET
SCATTERING
SENSITIVITY
SKY