The Taiwanese–American Occultation Survey (TAOS) is a robotic survey of the

Outer Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar S ...

. TAOS uses an array of four 50 cm aperture telescopes to monitor background stars awaiting the alignment of an

with a star target: an ''occultation''. Small objects in the

that are too small to be observed by direct observations at this time can be probed with this technique.

Occultation An occultation is an event that occurs when one object is hidden from the observer by another object that passes between them. The term is often used in astronomy, but can also refer to any situation in which an object in the foreground blocks ...

surveys take advantage of

diffraction Diffraction is defined as the interference or bending of waves around the corners of an obstacle or through an aperture into the region of geometrical shadow of the obstacle/aperture. The diffracting object or aperture effectively becomes a s ...

effects during the transit of the occulting object (the ''occulter'') in front of a background star to constraint the size and distance of the occulter. TAOS is sensitive to occultations by

Kuiper Belt Objects The Kuiper belt () is a circumstellar disc in the outer Solar System, extending from the orbit of Neptune at 30 astronomical units (AU) to approximately 50 AU from the Sun. It is similar to the asteroid belt, but is far larger—20 times ...

(KBOs) larger than about 500 m in diameter Z.-W. Zhang, F. B. Bianco, M. J. Lehner, N. K. Coehlo, J.-H. Wang, S. Mondal, C. Alcock, T. Axelrod, Y.-I. Byun, W.-P. Chen, K. H. Cook, R. Dave, I. de Pater, R. Porrata, D.-W. Kim, S.-K. King, T. Lee, H.-C. Lin, J. J. Lissauer, S. L. Marshall, P. Protopapas, J. A. Rice, M. E. Schwamb, S.-Y. Wang, C.-Y. We
First Results From The Taiwanese-American Occultation Survey (TAOS)
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 685, Issue 2, pp. L157-L160. and to Sedna-like objects. The TAOS telescopes are located in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

, at the

Lulin Observatory The Lulin Observatory (, obs. code: D35) is an astronomical observatory operated by the Institute of Astronomy, National Central University in Taiwan. It is located at the summit of Mount Lulin in Xinyi Township, Nantou County. In 200 ...

Yushan National Park Yushan National Park () is one of the nine national parks in Taiwan and was named after the summit Yushan, the highest peak of the park.Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics The Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (also known as the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, abbreviated as ASIAA or IAA. ) is a research institute of the national academy of Taiwan, Academia Sinica. ASIAA is currently ...

, Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian,

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a federal research facility in Livermore, California, United States. The lab was originally established as the University of California Radiation Laboratory, Livermore Branch in 1952 in response ...

, The Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics,

National Central University National Central University (NCU, ; Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: ''Kwet-li̍p Chung-yong Thài-ho̍k'', Wade–Giles: ''Kuo2 Li4 Chung Yang Ta4 Hsüeh2'' or ''中大'', ''Chung-ta'') is a public research university with long-standing traditions based in Taiwa ...

, Institute of Astronomy and

Yonsei University Yonsei University (; ) is a private research university in Seoul, South Korea. As a member of the "SKY" universities, Yonsei University is deemed one of the three most prestigious institutions in the country. It is particularly respected in the ...

, South Korea. Currently, an expansion to the TAOS project is being planned called TAOS II, with a new meaning to the acronym, the Transneptunian Automated Occultation Survey. The data volume is expected to be over 300 terabytes per year.

References

External links

*
TAOS at National Central University, Institute of Astronomy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tawianese-American Occultation Survey Astronomical surveys Astronomical imaging Observational astronomy Trans-Neptunian region