Abstract
Meg Schwamb, Queen's University Belfast, Candidate for Assistant Director for Research Support
The small icy bodies in the Trans-Neptunian region originated in the construction zones that formed our planets. As the fossils left over from the era of planet formation, Trans-Neptunian objects (TNOS) inform our knowledge about the growth of planetary embryos and the dynamical evolution of our Solar System. In this talk, I present results from new efforts to explore and explain the structure, compositional, and evolution of the Outer Solar System and Trans-Neptunian region using wide-field ground-based optical surveys. I will present results from a large program on the 8-m Gemini North telescope to probe surface compositions by obtaining broad-band optical and infrared colors of ~100 Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) with m_r’ <= 23.5 mag (50-300 km in size) discovered from a single well characterized survey, the Outer Solar System Origins Survey. I will present recent analysis of serendipitous detections of TNOs in the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) and Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) surveys with a focus on what these results reveal about TNO surfaces and cometary activity. Finally, I will highlight how the upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory and the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) will provide our best view yet of the distant Outer Solar System.
