Mount Lemmon Survey (MLS) is a part of the Catalina Sky Survey with observatory code G96.[2] MLS uses a 1.52 m (60 in) cassegrain reflector telescope (with 10560x10560-pixel camera at the f/1.6 prime focus, for a five square degree field of view)[3] operated by the Steward Observatory at Mount Lemmon Observatory, which is located at 2,791 meters (9,157 ft) in the Santa Catalina Mountains northeast of Tucson, Arizona.
 | |
| Alternative names | MLS |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 32°26′34″N 110°47′19″W / 32.44283°N 110.78869°W |
| Observatory code | G96 |
| see List of minor planets § Main index |
It is currently one of the most prolific surveys worldwide, especially for discovering near-Earth objects. MLS ranks among the top discoverers on the Minor Planet Center's discovery chart with a total of more than 50,000 numbered minor planets.[1][4]
History
editAndrea Boattini and the survey accidentally rediscovered 206P/Barnard-Boattini, a lost comet, on 7 October 2008.[5] The comet has made 20 revolutions since 1892 and passed within 0.3–0.4 AU of Jupiter in 1922, 1934 and 2005.[6][7] This comet was also the first comet to be discovered by photographic means, by the American astronomer Edward Emerson Barnard, who did so on the night of 13 October 1892.[5]
On 12 January 2008, Mount Lemmon Survey discovered the near-Earth asteroid 2008 AO112 at an apparent magnitude of 21 using a 1.5-meter (59 in) reflecting telescope.[8]
2011 UN63 was discovered by the Mount Lemmon Survey on 27 September 2009 and it is a stable L5 Mars trojan asteroid.[9][10] The survey also discovered the unusual Aten asteroid 2012 FC71, a dynamically cold Kozai resonator, on 31 March 2012.[11]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b "Minor Planet Discoverers (by number)". Minor Planet Center. 12 January 2017. Retrieved 2 February 2017.
- ^ "List Of Observatory Codes". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
- ^ "CSS Telescopes". Retrieved 9 January 2020.
- ^ "Catalina Sky Survey Facilities – The Mt. Lemmon Survey (MLS)". University of Arizona. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
- ^ a b 206P at Garry Kronk’s Cometography Archived 2010-09-25 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ IAUC 8995
- ^ The COCD Homepage
- ^ "MPEC 2008-D33". IAU Minor Planet Center. 25 February 2008. Retrieved 28 August 2013. (K08AB2O)
- ^ de la Fuente Marcos, Carlos; de la Fuente Marcos, Raúl (2013). "Three new stable L5 Mars Trojans". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters. 432 (1): L31 – L35. arXiv:1303.0124. Bibcode:2013MNRAS.432L..31D. doi:10.1093/mnrasl/slt028.
- ^ Christou, A. A. (2013). "Orbital clustering of Martian Trojans: An asteroid family in the inner solar system?". Icarus. 224 (1): 144–153. arXiv:1303.0420. Bibcode:2013Icar..224..144C. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2013.02.013. S2CID 119186791.
- ^ de la Fuente Marcos, Carlos; de la Fuente Marcos, Raúl (2013). "A resonant family of dynamically cold small bodies in the near-Earth asteroid belt". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters. 434: L1 – L5. arXiv:1305.2825. Bibcode:2013MNRAS.434L...1D. doi:10.1093/mnrasl/slt062.
