Pan-STARRS

The CfA has joined the Pan-STARRS-1 Science Consortium. Pan-STARRS-1 is a 1.8m aperture telescope located on Haleakala. Its 1.4 gigapixel, 7 square degree camera will repeatedly image the entire sky north -30 degrees declination. Roughly 60% of the observing time of the PS1 telescope will be dedicated to the "3pi steradian" survey with an observing cadence that is optimized for the detection of near-Earth asteroids and slow-moving solar system bodies. Over the course of its 3.5 year science mission, this unprecedented survey will discover nearly every asteroid, Trojan, Centaur, long-period comet, short-period comet, and trans-neptunian object brighter than magnitude r=23. This census will be used to address a large number of questions regarding the physical and dynamical properties of the various small body populations of the solar system. In addition, this survey will determine the population of large, distant, and rare members of the outer solar system and have the potential to detect planet-sized objects at great distances. The PS1 Outer Solar System key project team is led by Matthew Holman, Associate Director of the Theoretical Astrophysics Division.