P51A-2050
An exploration of the trans-Neptunian region through stellar occultations and MIOSOTYS.

Friday, 18 December 2015
Poster Hall (Moscone South)
Alain Doressoundiram1, Lucie Maquet2, Françoise Roques1, Chih-Yuan Liu3, Hsiang-Kuang Chang3, I Chun Shih4 and The MIOSOTYS Team, (1)Paris Observatory, Paris, France, (2)Paris Observatory, IMCCE, Paris, France, (3)National Tsing Hua University, Department of Physics, Hsinchu, Taiwan, (4)Observatoire de Paris, GEPI, Paris, France
Abstract:
MIOSOTYS (Multi-object Instrument for Occultations in the SOlar system and TransitorY Systems) is a multi-fiber positioner coupled with a fast photometry camera. This is a visitor instrument mounted on the 193 cm telescope at the Observatoire de Haute-Provence, France, and on the 123 cm telescope at the Calar Alto Observatory, Spain. Our immediate goal is to characterize the spatial distribution and extension of the Kuiper Belt, and the physical size distribution of Trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs).

We present the observation campaigns during 2010-2014, objectives and observing strategy. We report the detection of potential candidates for occultation events of TNOs. We discuss more specifically the method used to process the data and the modelling of diffraction patterns. The size distribution of sub-kilometer TNOs is then discussed and compared with current models of the Kuiper Belt.

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