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We present the first set of trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) observed on multiple nights in data taken from the DECam Ecliptic Exploration Project. Of these 110 TNOs, 105 do not coincide with previously known TNOs and appear to be new discoveries. Each individual detection for our objects resulted from a digital tracking search at TNO rates of motion, using two-to-four-hour exposure sets, and the detections were subsequently linked across multiple observing seasons. This procedure allows us to find objects with magnitudes m VR ≈ 26. The object discovery processing also included a comprehensive population of objects injected into the images, with a recovery and linking rate of at least 94%. The final orbits were obtained using a specialized orbit-fitting procedure that accounts for the positional errors derived from the digital tracking procedure. Our results include robust orbits and magnitudes for classical TNOs with absolute magnitudes H ∼ 10, as well as a dynamically detached object found at 76 au (semimajor axis a ≈ 77 au). We find a disagreement between our population of classical TNOs and the CFEPS-L7 three-component model for the Kuiper Belt.

We present the unTimely Catalog, a deep time-domain catalog of detections based on Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and NEOWISE observations spanning the 2010 through 2020 time period. Detections are extracted from “time-resolved unWISE coadds,” which stack together each biannual sky pass of WISE imaging to create a set of ∼16 all-sky maps (per band), each much deeper and cleaner than individual WISE exposures. unTimely incorporates the W1 (3.4 μm) and W2 (4.6 μm) channels, meaning that our data set effectively consists of ∼32 full-sky unWISE catalogs. We run the crowdsource crowded-field point-source photometry pipeline (Schlafly et al. 2018) on each epochal coadd independently, with low detection thresholds: S/N = 4.0 (2.5) in W1 (W2). In total, we tabulate and publicly release 23.5 billion (19.9 billion) detections at W1 (W2). unTimely is ∼1.3 mag deeper than the WISE/NEOWISE Single Exposure Source Tables near the ecliptic, with further enhanced depth toward higher ecliptic latitudes. The unTimely Catalog is primarily designed to enable novel searches for faint, fast-moving objects, such as Y dwarfs and/or late-type (T/Y) subdwarfs in the Milky Way’s thick disk or halo. unTimely will also facilitate other time-domain science applications, such as all-sky studies of quasar variability at mid-infrared wavelengths over a decade-long time baseline.

We present a seven-band (g, r, i, z, y, NB816, NB921) catalog derived from a Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) imaging survey of the North Ecliptic Pole (NEP). The survey, known as HEROES, consists of 44 deg2 of contiguous imaging reaching median 5σ depths of g: 26.5, r: 26.2, i: 25.7, z: 25.1, y: 23.9, NB816: 24.4, and NB921: 24.4 mag. We reduced these data with the HSC pipeline software hscPipe, and produced a resulting multiband catalog containing over 25 million objects. We provide the catalog in three formats: (1) a collection of hscPipe format forced photometry catalogs, (2) a single combined catalog containing every object in that data set with selected useful columns, and (3) a smaller variation of the combined catalog with only essential columns for basic analysis or low-memory machines. The catalog uses all the available HSC data on the NEP and may serve as the primary optical catalog for current and future NEP deep fields from instruments and observatories such as SCUBA-2, eROSITA, Spitzer, Euclid, and JWST.

We revisit the lensing anomaly in the Planck 2018 temperature (TT) data and examine its robustness to frequency selection and additional sky masking. Our main findings are as follows. (1) The phenomenological lensing amplitude parameter, A L , varies with ecliptic latitude, with a 2.9σ preference for A L > 1 near the ecliptic and 1.0σ preference near the ecliptic poles, compared to 2.5σ on the original masks. This behavior is largely or solely from 217 GHz and suggestive of some nonrandom effect, given the Planck scan strategy. (2) The 217 GHz TT data also show a stronger preference for A L > 1 than the lower frequencies. The shifts in A L from 217 GHz with additional Galactic dust masking are too large to be explained solely by statistical fluctuations, indicating some connection with the foreground treatment. Overall, the Planck A L anomaly does not have a single simple cause. Removing the 217 GHz TT data leaves a 1.8σ preference for A L > 1. The low-multipole (ℓ < 30) TT data contribute to the preference for A L > 1 through correlations with ΛCDM parameters. The 100 and 143 GHz data at ℓ ≥ 30 prefer A L > 1 at 1.3σ, and this appears robust to the masking tests we performed. The lensing anomaly may impact fits to alternative cosmological models. Marginalizing over A L , optionally applied only to Planck TT spectra, can check this. Models proposed to address cosmological tensions should be robust to removal of the Planck 217 GHz TT data.

We present a detailed study of the observational biases of the DECam Ecliptic Exploration Project’s B1 data release and survey simulation software that enables direct statistical comparisons between models and our data. We inject a synthetic population of objects into the images, and then subsequently recover them in the same processing as our real detections. This enables us to characterize the survey’s completeness as a function of apparent magnitudes and on-sky rates of motion. We study the statistically optimal functional form for the magnitude, and develop a methodology that can estimate the magnitude and rate efficiencies for all survey’s pointing groups simultaneously. We have determined that our peak completeness is on average 80% in each pointing group, and our magnitude drops to 25% of this value at m 25 = 26.22. We describe the freely available survey simulation software and its methodology. We conclude by using it to infer that our effective search area for objects at 40 au is 14.8 deg2, and that our lack of dynamically cold distant objects means that there at most 8 × 103 objects with 60 < a < 80 au and absolute magnitudes H ≤ 8.

Neutral gas of the local interstellar medium flows through the inner solar system while being deflected by solar gravity and depleted by ionization. The dominating feature in the energetic neutral atom Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) all-sky maps at low energies is the hydrogen, helium, and oxygen interstellar gas flow. The He and O flow peaked around 8 February 2009 in accordance with gravitational deflection, whereas H dominated after 26 March 2009, consistent with approximate balance of gravitational attraction by solar radiation pressure. The flow distributions arrive from a few degrees above the ecliptic plane and show the same temperature for He and O. An asymmetric O distribution in ecliptic latitude points to a secondary component from the outer heliosheath.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) North Ecliptic Pole (NEP) Time-domain Field (TDF) is a >14′ diameter field optimized for multiwavelength time-domain science with JWST. It has been observed across the electromagnetic spectrum both from the ground and from space, including with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). As part of HST observations over three cycles (the “TREASUREHUNT” program), deep images were obtained with the Wide Field Camera on the Advanced Camera for Surveys in F435W and F606W that cover almost the entire JWST NEP TDF. Many of the individual pointings of these programs partially overlap, allowing an initial assessment of the potential of this field for time-domain science with HST and JWST. The cumulative area of overlapping pointings is ∼88 arcmin2, with time intervals between individual epochs that range between 1 day and 4+ yr. To a depth of m AB ≃ 29.5 mag (F606W), we present the discovery of 12 transients and 190 variable candidates. For the variable candidates, we demonstrate that Gaussian statistics are applicable and estimate that ∼80 are false positives. The majority of the transients will be supernovae, although at least two are likely quasars. Most variable candidates are active galactic nuclei (AGNs), where we find 0.42% of the general z ≲ 6 field galaxy population to vary at the ∼3σ level. Based on a 5 yr time frame, this translates into a random supernova areal density of up to ∼0.07 transients arcmin−2 (∼245 deg−2) per epoch and a variable AGN areal density of ∼1.25 variables arcmin−2 (∼4500 deg−2) to these depths.

We present here the DECam Ecliptic Exploration Project (DEEP), a 3 yr NOAO/NOIRLab Survey that was allocated 46.5 nights to discover and measure the properties of thousands of trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) to magnitudes as faint as VR ∼ 27 mag, corresponding to sizes as small as 20 km diameter. In this paper we present the science goals of this project, the experimental design of our survey, and a technical demonstration of our approach. The core of our project is “digital tracking,” in which all collected images are combined at a range of motion vectors to detect unknown TNOs that are fainter than the single exposure depth of VR ∼ 23 mag. Through this approach, we reach a depth that is approximately 2.5 mag fainter than the standard LSST “wide fast deep” nominal survey depth of 24.5 mag. DEEP will more than double the number of known TNOs with observational arcs of 24 hr or more, and increase by a factor of 10 or more the number of known small (<50 km) TNOs. We also describe our ancillary science goals, including measuring the mean shape distribution of very small main-belt asteroids, and briefly outline a set of forthcoming papers that present further aspects of and preliminary results from the DEEP program.

In this paper we calculate the expected orbital elements, radiants, and velocities of Earth-impacting interstellar objects. We generate a synthetic population of ∼1010 interstellar objects with M-star kinematics in order to obtain ∼104 Earth impactors. The relative flux of impactors arriving from the direction of the solar apex and the Galactic plane is enhanced by a factor of ∼2 relative to the mean. The fastest impactors also arrive from these directions, although Earth impactors are generally slower than objects in the overall population. This is because the Earth-impacting subset contains a higher fraction of low-eccentricity hyperbolic objects, which are more strongly affected by gravitational focusing. Earth-impacting interstellar objects are more likely to have retrograde orbits close to the ecliptic plane. A selection effect makes the inclination distribution of Earth-impacting interstellar objects uniform (sinusoidal) at low (high) perihelion distances. In turn, low-perihelion impactors have a higher impact probability towards the ecliptic plane. The overall impactor population therefore exhibits an intermediate inclination distribution between uniform and sinusoidal. In turn, low-perihelion impactors have a higher impact probability towards the ecliptic plane. The highest-velocity impacts are most likely to occur in the spring when the Earth is moving towards the solar apex. However, impacts in general are more likely to occur during the winter when the Earth is located in the direction of the antapex. Interstellar objects are more likely to impact the Earth at low latitudes close to the equator, with a slight preference for the Northern Hemisphere due to the location of the apex. These distributions are independent of the assumed interstellar object number density, albedos, and size–frequency distribution and are publicly available.

Superfast rotators (SFRs) are small solar system objects that rotate faster than generally possible for a cohesionless rubble pile. Their rotational characteristics allow us to make inferences about their interior structure and composition. Here, we present the methods and results from a preliminary search for SFRs in the DECam Ecliptic Exploration Project (DEEP) data set. We find three SFRs from a sample of 686 main-belt asteroids, implying an occurrence rate of 0.4−0.3+0.1 %—a higher incidence rate than has been measured by previous studies. We suggest that this high occurrence rate is due to the small sub-kilometer size regime to which DEEP has access: the objects searched here were as small as ∼500 m. We compute the minimum required cohesive strength for each of these SFRs and discuss the implications of these strengths in the context of likely evolution mechanisms. We find that all three of these SFRs require strengths that are more than that of weak regolith but consistent with many cohesive asteroid strengths reported in the literature. Across the full DEEP data set, we have identified ∼70,000 Main-Belt Asteroids and expect ∼300 SFRs—a result that will be assessed in a future paper.