Published July 23, 2021 | Version v1
Poster Open

Extremely fast objects in TESS images: who they are and where they go?

  • 1. Konkoly Observatory

Description

Mainly, TESS observes an average minor planet with a quite decent apparent proper motion around a pixel or a fraction of a pixel per long cadence. However, some of the full frame images exhibit extraordinary long streaks corresponding to nearby objects with an apparent speed in the order of several minutes of arc per minute. Therefore, the parent objects of these streaks are usually visible only for a few frames. On the other hand, thanks to the on-board cosmic ray mitigation algorithm employed by the image acquisition electronics, these streaks are chopped into smaller segments, allowing us to determine its properties within a cadence of 20 seconds. All in all, we can say that despite the comparatively small number of frames, hundreds of individual data points are available for further analysis - allowing us to determine their physical characteristics and orbit. In this poster we exhibit few such objects and we try to answer the implied questions: who they are and where they go? Are these natural objects or artificial ones? Are these previously known or unknown ones?
 

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tsc2021_apal_a0.pdf

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