Discovery Channel Telescope » DCT Science » Kuiper Belt

DCT Status, 29 Feb 2012

Construction complete

On January 20, 2012, the DCT's secondary mirror was successfully mounted in its support cell at the top of the telescope truss and on February 7, our engineers installed the instrument cube on the back of the primary mirror cell. These were the final major components of the telescope to be installed. This essentially marked the completion of construction.

We are therefore now fully into the commissioning phase of the DCT project. On February 24, we began observations using one of the guider probe cameras, formerly used at the DCT's prime focus in a test camera to examine the performance of the primary mirror and active optics but now mounted in their proper home in the instrument cube. Early results suggest the full Ritchey-Chretien system is working extremely well. The team is satisfied with the alignment of the telescope and has reached image quality of 1 arc second. We soon will be employing the active optics system to fine-tune the image quality.

Large Monolithic Imager

With the instrument cube (which includes the guider and wavefront sensor) now complete, our shop has turned its full attention to completing the Large Monolithic Imager (LMI). The LMI, funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation, will be the DCT's workhorse instrument, featuring a 36 megapixel CCD with a field of view of nearly 13 arc minutes. When complete, the LMI will be mounted on the back of the instrument cube, at the straight-through position, with other instruments eventually arrayed around the side ports.

First Light

At this time, we remain on schedule for first light in May 2012. The Discovery Channel plans to air its first major feature on the DCT in June 2012.

Artist's conception of the Kuiper Belt object Sedna

Artist's conception of the Kuiper Belt object Sedna. NASA/JPL.

The DCT will advance Lowell’s tradition of researching the outer solar system.

The DCT offers unique capabilities for both faint objects and large, synoptic, observing endeavors. These capabilities will allow Lowell researchers to gain new insights into the Kuiper Belt — a group of faint objects orbiting the outer edges of the solar system, beyond the orbits of Neptune and Pluto.

To better understand the Kuiper Belt’s composition and dynamic history, we’ll survey it with the Near Infrared High Throughput Spectrograph (NIHTS). Lowell Observatory astronomer Henry Roe will conduct this Kuiper Spectral Survey — or “KSS” — using the DCT, which is capable of extremely fast instrument switching. Roe will compare infrared spectra to data from the DCT’s Large Monolithic Imager (LMI) to learn more about what comprises these objects and what they reveal about the early history of the outer solar system. The KSS will yield detailed data for about 350 objects.