The Transneptunian Automated Occultation Survey (TAOS II) will achieve first light in Spring 2025. TAOS II is a blind occultation survey with the primary goal to measure the size distribution of small (~1 km diameter) Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs). Such events are extremely rare (< 0.001 per star per year) and very short in duration (~200 ms). To enable serendipitous discovery many stars must be monitored simultaneously at high cadence. TAOS II will monitor 2,000 to 10,000 stars simultaneously at a cadence of 20 Hz using three 1.3 meter F/4 telescopes operating at San Pedro Mártir Observatory (SPM) in Baja California, Mexico. Over five years of operations, the TAOS II dataset will collect ~3 PB of multi-telescope 20 Hz lightcurve data for hundreds of thousands of objects. This unique dataset will provide ample opportunity for science outside of the primary goal to measure the TNO size distribution.

The primary goal of this scientific workshop is to foster collaborations among members of the TAOS II partner institutions for the purpose of ancillary science using the survey dataset. Following an introduction to the TAOS II observational facilities, data, and science, the workshop will cover a number of science possibilities using the TAOS II dataset including, but not limited to:

  • exoplanets
  • flare stars
  • variable stars
  • stellar seismology
  • atmospheric events
  • other variable objects (CVs, quasars)
  • other transient events

In addition, the workshop will cover a number of possible uses of the TAOS II facility, possibly with new instrumentation (e.g. pixel lensing, intensity interferometry).

The workshop will be held at the Instituto de Astronomía of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in Ensenada, Baja California May 5 -- 7, 2025. In addition, participants are invited to attend the TAOS II First Light Celebration on May 7, and there will be a site visit to SPM May 8 -- 9. Due to the limited space, attendance of this meeting will be invitation only.

12:00 Noon UTC 16 May 2024

Deadline for requests for accommodations at conference hotel

Invited Speakers

Sota Arakawa
Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Japan
Pedro Bernardinelli
University of Washington, USA
Laura Buchanan
University of Victoria, Canada
Ana Carolina de Souza Feliciano
Florida Space Institute, University of Central Florida, USA
Christopher Glein
Southwest Research Institute, USA
Eva Lilly
Planetary Science Institute, USA
Belén Maté
Instituto de Estructura de la Materia, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Spain
Chrystian Luciano Pereira
Observatório Nacional/MCTI, Brazil
Anne Verbiscer
University of Virginia, USA
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