Exploring the Outer Solar System with Space-based Observatories
Charles Alcock
Building: The Empress Convention Center
Room: CHIANGMAI 2
Date: 2011-07-26 04:00 PM – 04:30 PM
Last modified: 2011-05-11
Abstract
The solar system beyond Neptune contains two or more populations containing very large numbers of small objects: the Kuiper Belt immediately outside Neptune's orbit, and the much more distant Oort Cloud, outside 3,000 A.U. There may be additional, analogous populations in between these two, perhaps associated with the event that placed Sedna into its present orbit. These populations are believed to have been populated during the epoch of giant planet migration, and thus their structures can give insight to that dramatic, early phase of evolution in the solar system. The challenge is to detect them; they are mostly much too faint to detect using conventional techniques. They can, however, in principal be detected indirectly when they briefly occult a bright star.
A plausible occultation by a small Kuiper Belt Object has been detected using the Fine Guidance Sensors on the Hubble Space Telescope (Schlichting et al, 2009). My collaborators and I have proposed to NASA a dedicated spacecraft named Whipple to carry out a systematic survey of the outer solar system using the occultation technique, which will be able to reach into the inner portions of the Oort Cloud. This talk will discuss the challenges facing this mission, and highlight the advantages of doing such a survey in space.