The ESA Optical Ground Station (''OGS Telescope'' or ''ESA Space Debris Telescope'') is the

European Space Agency , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (120 ...

's ground based

observatory An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysical, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. H ...

at the

Teide Observatory Teide Observatory ( es, Observatorio del Teide), IAU code 954, is an astronomical observatory on Mount Teide at , located on Tenerife, Spain. It has been operated by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias since its inauguration in 1964. It beca ...

Tenerife Tenerife (; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands. It is home to 43% of the total population of the Archipelago, archipelago. With a land area of and a population of 978,100 inhabitant ...

, Spain, built for the observation of space debris. OGS is part of the

Artemis In ancient Greek mythology and Ancient Greek religion, religion, Artemis (; grc-gre, Ἄρτεμις) is the goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, nature, vegetation, childbirth, Kourotrophos, care of children, and chastity. ...

experiment and is operated by the IAC ( Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias) and Ataman Science S.L.U. The telescope is a 1-metre Coudé telescope with field of view of 0.7 degrees, supported by an English cross-axial mount inside a dome 12.5-metre in diameter. Its main purposes are: # to be the optical ground station of the Artemis telecommunications satellite (the project from which the telescope takes its name) # to make surveys of space debris in different orbits around the Earth, # to make surveys and follow-up observations of

near-Earth object A near-Earth object (NEO) is any small Solar System body whose orbit brings it into proximity with Earth. By convention, a Solar System body is a NEO if its closest approach to the Sun (perihelion) is less than 1.3 astronomical units (AU) ...

s as part of ESA's

Space Situational Awareness programme The Space Safety Programme, formerly the Space Situational Awareness (SSA) programme, is the European Space Agency's (ESA) initiative to monitor hazards from space, determine their risk, make this data available to the appropriate authorities and w ...

, and # to make scientific astronomical night observations. It is equipped with a cryogenically cooled mosaic CCD-Camera of 4k×4k pixels. The detection threshold is between 19th and 21st

magnitude Magnitude may refer to: Mathematics *Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction *Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object *Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector *Order of ...

, which corresponds to a capability to detect space debris objects as small as 10 cm in the

geostationary ring In orbital mechanics, the geostationary ring is the region of space around the Earth that includes geostationary orbits and the volume of space which can be reached by uncontrolled objects which begin in geostationary orbits and are subsequently p ...

. As a large part of the observation time is dedicated to space debris surveys, in particular the observation of space debris in the

and in

geostationary transfer orbit A geosynchronous transfer orbit or geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) is a type of geocentric orbit. Satellites that are destined for geosynchronous (GSO) or geostationary orbit (GEO) are (almost) always put into a GTO as an intermediate step f ...

s, the term ESA Space Debris Telescope became used very frequently. Space debris surveys are carried out every month, centered on New Moon. Since 2006, the telescope has also been used as a receiver station for quantum communication experiments (such as testing Bell inequalities,

quantum cryptography Quantum cryptography is the science of exploiting quantum mechanical properties to perform cryptographic tasks. The best known example of quantum cryptography is quantum key distribution which offers an information-theoretically secure solutio ...

, quantum teleportation), with the sender station being 143 km away in the observatory on La Palma. This is possible because this telescope can be tilted to a near-horizontal position to point it at La Palma, which many large astronomical telescopes are unable to do.

List of discovered minor planets

EAS OGS has been credited by the

Minor Planet Center The Minor Planet Center (MPC) is the official body for observing and reporting on minor planets under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Founded in 1947, it operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Function ...

with the discovery of 37

minor planet According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term '' ...

s. These are:

References

External links

* http://www.iac.es/eno.php?op1=3&op2=6&lang=en&id=7 * http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=36520 * http://vmo.estec.esa.int/totas {{Planetary defense * Space Situational Awareness Programme Optical telescopes European Space Agency Space debris

List of discovered minor planets

See also

References

External links