Discovering and securing TNOs: the CFHTLS Ecliptic survey

We have developed an international collaboration aimed at discovering and long-term tracking of a large Trans-Neptunian Object (TNO) sample. The scientific rationale behind this extended observational effort is to understand the dynamical structure of the outer Solar System. This structure provides a unique tracer of planetary accretion processes and constrains models of formation and early evolution of our outer Solar System. servational program is designed to first discover a large sample of TNOs in well characterized surveys and then track them in a manner which will avoid what we call ‘follow-up bias’. st briefly describe the current status of our current observational knowledge of the Kuiper Belt. Next we show how following-up almost all objects discovered in a survey has changed our view of the dynamical structure of the Kuiper Belt. Thanks to our work, previously empty places have been filled in, the relative importance of the then known dynamical population have been largely modified, and a new, potentially very large, population have been discovered. Discoveries presented in this paper were done at CFHT, while recoveries were performed on multiple telescopes, including in particular the ESO telescopes and the MPIA telescopes in Calar Alto (Spain). y, we briefly describe the ecliptic component of the CFHT Legacy Survey for which Kuiper Belt science is the main driver. Our experience with discovery and follow-up observations has led us to design an efficient time-sequence of observations for this survey. To cite this article: J.-M. Petit, B. Gladman, C. R. Physique 4 (2003).