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TheTaiwanese–American Occultation Survey (TAOS) is a robotic survey of theOuter Solar System.[1][2] TAOS uses an array of four 50 cm aperture telescopes to monitor background stars awaiting the alignment of anOuter Solar System with a star target: anoccultation. Small objects in theOuter Solar System that are too small to be observed by direct observations at this time can be probed with this technique.Occultation surveys take advantage ofdiffraction effects during the transit of the occulting object (theocculter) in front of a background star to constraint the size and distance of the occulter. TAOS is sensitive to occultations byKuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) larger than about 500 m in diameter[3] and toSedna-like objects.
The TAOS telescopes are located inTaiwan, at theLulin Observatory inYushan National Park.
TAOS is a joint effort of theAcademia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics,Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian,Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, The Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics,National Central University, Institute of Astronomy andYonsei University, South Korea.
Currently, an expansion to the TAOS project is being planned called TAOS II, with a new meaning to the acronym, the Transneptunian Automated Occultation Survey. The data volume is expected to be over 300 terabytes per year.
