My Research - WASP and Asteroids

Overview

My research involves the SuperWASP project, an ultra-wide angle search for extra solar planetary transits. However, it can also serendipitously detect solar system objects, such as asteroids and comets. Each SuperWASP instrument consists of up to eight cameras, which photometrically survey large numbers of stars in the magnitude range 7 to 15. Each camera covers a 7.8 x 7.8 degree field of view. Located on La Palma, the SuperWASP-I instrument has been observing the Northern Hemisphere with five cameras since its inauguration in April 2004.

Why Use SuperWASP?

The ultra-wide angle field of view gives SuperWASP the possibility of discovering new fast moving (near to Earth) asteroids that could have been missed by other instruments. It also provides an opportunity to produce a magnitude-limited lightcurve survey of known main belt asteroids, as slow moving asteroids stay within a single SuperWASP field for several weeks.

Current Progress?

Currently there has been 3 asteroids found in the SuperWASP test data set in total comprising of over 500 datapoints.
SuperWASP asteroid movie (About 16mb download), shows a moving asteroid object in the reduced wasp frames.
Asteroid 350 position picture, shows the WASP data collected for asteroid 350 over many nights back in May/June 2004.