Detection and Identification of Asteroids with the 4-m ILMT
Anna Pospieszalska-Surdej,
Institute of Astrophysics and Geophysics, University of Liège, Allée du 6 Août 19c, 4000, Liège, Belgium. Corresponding author: anna.pospieszalska@uliege.be
Bhavya Ailawadhi,
Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational sciencES (ARIES), Manora Peak, Nainital, 263001, India and Department of Physics, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur, 273009, India
Talat Akhunov,
National University of Uzbekistan, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 100174 Tashkent, Uzbekistan and Ulugh Beg Astronomical Institute of the Uzbek Academy of Sciences, Astronomicheskaya 33, 100052 Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Ermanno Borra,
Department of Physics, Université Laval, 2325, rue de l’Université, Québec, G1V 0A6, Canada
Monalisa Dubey,
Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational sciencES (ARIES), Manora Peak, Nainital, 263001, India and Department of Applied Physics, Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Rohilkhand University, Bareilly, 243006, India
Naveen Dukiya,
Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational sciencES (ARIES), Manora Peak, Nainital, 263001, India and Department of Applied Physics, Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Rohilkhand University, Bareilly, 243006, India.
Jiuyang Fu,
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, 6224 Agricultural Road, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1, Canada
Baldeep Grewal,
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, 6224 Agricultural Road, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1, Canada
Paul Hickson,
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, 6224 Agricultural Road, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1, Canada
Brajesh Kumar,
Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational sciencES (ARIES), Manora Peak, Nainital, 263001, India
Kuntal Misra,
Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational sciencES (ARIES), Manora Peak, Nainital, 263001, India
Vibhore Negi,
Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational sciencES (ARIES), Manora Peak, Nainital, 263001, India and Department of Physics, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur, 273009, India
Kumar Pranshu,
Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational sciencES (ARIES), Manora Peak, Nainital, 263001, India and Department of Applied Optics and Photonics, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, 700106, India
Ethen Sun,
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, 6224 Agricultural Road, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1, Canada
Jean Surdej,
Institute of Astrophysics and Geophysics, University of Liège, Allée du 6 Août 19c, 4000 Liège, Belgium
Abstract
A very unique strength of the Devasthal Observatory is its capability of detecting optical transients with the 4-m International Liquid Mirror Telescope (ILMT) and to rapidly follow them up using the 1.3-m Devasthal Fast Optical Telescope (DFOT) and/or the 3.6-m Devasthal Optical Telescope (DOT), installed right next to it. In this context, we have inspected 20 fields observed during nine consecutive nights in October-November 2022 during the first commissioning phase of the ILMT. Each of these fields has an angular extent of 22′ in declination by 9×22′ in right ascension. Combining both a visual search for optical transients and an automatic search for these using an image subtraction technique (see Pranshu et al., 2024), we report a total of 232 significant transient candidates. After consulting the Minor Planet Center database of asteroids, we could identify among these 219 positions of known asteroids brighter than V = 22. These correspond to the confirmed positions of 78 distinct known asteroids. Analysis of the remaining CCD frames covering 19 more fields (out of 20) should lead to an impressive number of asteroids observed in only nine nights. The conclusion is that in order to detect and characterize new supernovae, micro-lensing events, highly variable stars, multiply imaged quasars, etc. among the ILMT optical transients, we shall first have to identify all known and new asteroids. Thanks to its large diameter and short focal length (f/D ≃ 2.4), the ILMT turns out to be an excellent asteroid hunter.
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Anna Pospieszalska-Surdej, Bhavya Ailawadhi, Talat Akhunov, Ermanno Borra, Monalisa Dubey, Naveen Dukiya, Jiuyang Fu, Baldeep Grewal, Paul Hickson, Brajesh Kumar, Kuntal Misra, Vibhore Negi, Kumar Pranshu, Ethen Sun & Jean Surdej, «Detection and Identification of Asteroids with the 4-m ILMT», Bulletin de la Société Royale des Sciences de Liège [En ligne], Volume 93 - Année 2024, No 2 - Proceeedings of the 3rd BINA Workshop on the Scientific Potential of the Indo-Belgian Cooperation, 941-947 URL : https://popups.uliege.be/0037-9565/index.php?id=11931.
