ESA Optical Ground Station

The ESA Optical Ground Station (OGS Telescope or ESA Space Debris Telescope) is the European Space Agency's ground based observatory at the Teide Observatory on Tenerife, Spain, built for the observation of space debris. OGS is part of the Artemis experiment and is operated by the IAC (Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias) and Ataman Science S.L.U.

ESA Optical Ground Station
The ESA Optical Ground Station (on the left)
Alternative namesOGS Telescope
Part ofTeide Observatory 
Location(s)Tenerife, Atlantic Ocean
Coordinates28°18′04″N 16°30′43″W
OrganizationEuropean Space Agency 
Observatory code J04 
Telescope styleoptical telescope
Ritchey–Chrétien telescope 
Diameter1 m (3 ft 3 in)
Focal length13.3 m (43 ft 8 in)
Websitewww.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Engineering_Technology/Space_Optoelectronics/Optical_Ground_Station_OGS
Location of ESA Optical Ground Station
Related media on Wikimedia Commons

The telescope is a 1-metre Coudé telescope with field of view of 0.7 degrees, supported by an English-built mount inside a dome 12.5-metre in diameter. Its main purposes are:

  1. to be the optical ground station of the Artemis telecommunications satellite (the project from which the telescope takes its name)
  2. to make surveys of space debris in different orbits around the Earth,
  3. to make surveys and follow-up observations of near-Earth objects as part of ESA's Space Situational Awareness programme, and
  4. 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, which corresponds to a capability to detect space debris objects as small as 10 cm in the geostationary ring. As a large part of the observation time is dedicated to space debris surveys, in particular the observation of space debris in the geostationary ring and in geostationary transfer orbits, 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 teleportation), with the sender station being 143 km away in the observatory on La Palma.[1] 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 with the discovery of 37 minor planets.[2] These are:

(231609) 2009 RV10 September 2009list
(241554) 2010 FA9323 March 2010list
(246849) 2010 FB4822 March 2010list
(251626) 2010 FM5322 March 2010list
(257422) 2010 FR4722 March 2010list
(257423) 2010 FM4822 March 2010list
284891 Kona13 September 2009list
(296587) 2009 RA2613 September 2009list
297005 Ellirichter22 March 2010list
(301679) 2010 FA4822 March 2010list
(312714) 2010 RR31 September 2010list
(321480) 2009 RZ6910 September 2009list
(321810) 2010 RK41 September 2010list
(325476) 2009 RY10 September 2009list
(325791) 2010 RX41 September 2010list
(330873) 2009 RQ110 September 2009list
332706 Karlheidlas13 September 2009list
(343557) 2010 FX4722 March 2010list
(343577) 2010 FF8822 March 2010list
(347299) 2011 OA281 June 2011list
(356298) 2010 FT4722 March 2010list
(362429) 2010 RU41 September 2010list
(365291) 2009 RO2613 September 2009list
(368098) 2013 BP706 June 2010list
(369284) 2009 RQ2613 September 2009list
(381725) 2009 RP513 September 2009list
(386618) 2009 RD2613 September 2009list
(398163) 2010 FS4722 March 2010list
(403532) 2010 FG8822 March 2010list
(419562) 2010 RF51 September 2010list
420779 Świdwin11 April 2013list
(436317) 2010 FP4722 March 2010list
(438881) 2009 RD2810 September 2009list
(457818) 2009 RB5810 September 2009list
(463362) 2012 TB3015 September 2012list
(481993) 2009 RO2713 September 2009list
(482129) 2010 RC51 September 2010list

See also

References

  1. "ESA observatory breaks world quantum teleportation record". ESA press release. 6 September 2012.
  2. "Minor Planet Discoverers (by number)". Minor Planet Center. 12 January 2017. Retrieved 2 February 2017.
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