CFHT UM2025 - Presentation Details
Abstract Details
Title: The Classical and Large-a Solar System
Presenter: Wesley Fraser
Abstract:
Here we present results of CLASSY: the Classical and Large-A Solar SYstem survey. Running into its third year, this 2-year CFHT Large Program was allotted 75 nights from 2022B through 2024A inclusive, with a 16 night extension in 2024B and 2025A to accommodate time lost due to equipment failure. Using shift’n’stack techniques, CLASSY has been surveying 5 independent pointings (10.1 square degrees total) of the cold classical belt’s forced midplane, with as uniform spread in ecliptic as possible, achieving depths of r~26.8 in search of Kuiper Belt Objects and extreme trans-Neptunian objects (eTNOs). Field opposition locations are chosen to be spaced as evenly as possible and span a two-month window (AS: Aug-Sept, ON, JF, MJ, JA). By design each field is visited in 5 visits across the first year (discovery), and are tracked to a second opposition one year later for some fields, and 2 years later for others (tracking). All discovery fields have been acquired, and all fields have received a complete year 2 or year 3 follow-up. This presentation will provide an overview of the survey design, and what we have learned during the execution of this surprisingly challenging project. In particular we will highlight just how vital the queue-based observations that are offered by the CFHT and her staff have been for our program. We will finish with some science highlights. The main science goals of measuring the size distribution of the cold classical belt, and providing an census of extreme TNOs with minimal bias in ecliptic longitude, will be discussed in companion presentations by Obidowski and Lawler.