我們申請繼續「中美掩星計畫」的科學觀測。本計畫藉由監測背景恆星的光度變化，以偵測古柏帶天體所造成的掩星事件，據以估計古柏帶天體的數量與分佈。本計畫從2005 年初起開始科學觀測，截至2006 年秋季，已經收集超過數109 筆光度資料。雖然初步檢視並未發現任何掩星事件，但整個觀測系統已經除錯完畢，監測工作持續順利進行。我們所開發之光度分析程序，能夠即時處理大量影像，產生個別恆星之光變曲線，並且進一步使用無母數統計量來偵測可能之掩星事件。除了偵測古柏帶天體以外，本計畫所取得的大量取樣小於一秒，每晚多達近百 GByte 的光變數據，也是研究變星以及系外行星掩星的獨特資料庫。我們的系統也適合觀測小行星掩星以及迦瑪爆餘暉源。我們將把開發出來的快速光度測量的套裝程序與統計工具，實際用來分析多架望遠鏡資料，預期 3 年內完成KBO 的統計工作。The Taiwan-America Occultation Survey (TAOS) aims to search for small trans-Neptunian objects by detection of chance stellar occultation, and so far is the only one of its kind in the world for a systematic survey of the inventory of small bodies in the outer edge of the solar system. TAOS has entered its routine scientific operations since early 2005. After about 2 years of observations, some billions of photometric measurements have been collected. Although so far no event has been detected, a working set of highly efficient photometry pipelines and nonparametric statistical algorithms for event detection are in place. In addition to KBO events, we will use the unique GByte worth of stellar photometry dataset for variable stars and other transient events such as exoplanet transit events. Our system is also useful for asteroid occultations and gamma-ray burst afterglows. We expect to complete the KBO statistics in 3 years. 研究期間 : 9808 ~ 9907
