TheDeep Ecliptic Survey (DES) is a project to findKuiper belt objects (KBOs), using the facilities of theNational Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO). The principal investigator isRobert L. Millis.

Since 1998 through the end of 2003, the survey covered 550square degrees withsensitivity of 22.5, which means an estimated 50% of objects of this magnitude have been found.

The survey has also established the mean Kuiper Belt plane and introduced newformal definitions of the dynamical classes of Kuiper belt objects.^[2]

The remarkable first observations and/or discoveries include:^[3]

• 28978 Ixion, largeplutino
• 19521 Chaos (cubewano)
• 1998 WW31, the firstbinarytrans-Neptunian object (TNO)
• (148209) 2000 CR105, the first object withperihelion too far to be affected (scattered) byNeptune and a largesemi-major axis
• (87269) 2000 OO67, remarkable for its semi-major axis of more than 500AU and extremeeccentricity (0.96) taking the object from the inside of the Neptune'sorbit to more than 1000 AU
• 2001 QR322, the firstNeptune trojan
• 2002 XU₉₃, with one of the mostinclined orbits (>68°)

• https://web.archive.org/web/20040612003417/http://www.lowell.edu/Research/DES/

• Astronomical surveys
• Asteroid surveys
• Discoveries by the Deep Ecliptic Survey

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata