U.D.A.S. Home Page

UAO-DLR Asteroid Survey (U.D.A.S.)

U.D.A.S. is a dedicated programme to search and follow-up asteroids and comets, with special emphasis on NEO's in cooperation and support of global efforts in NEO-research, initiated by the WGNEO of the IAU, and the Spaceguard Foundation.

It is also a kind of follow-on programme to O.D.A.S., which had to close due to lack of further financial support.

It is operated at the 1m Schmidt-telescope of the UAO at Kvistaberg, some 50 km south of Uppsala in Sweden, as a joint venture between the Uppsala Astronomical Observatory - UAO, Uppsala, Sweden and the DLR - Institute of Space Sensor Technology and Planetary Exploration, Berlin-Adlershof, Germany. The current system uses a 2k CCD camera in combination with an automated asteroid detection software package.

U.D.A.S. began regular observations in September 1999, with some test run during 1998. Discoveries of NEOs are reported to the Minor Planet Center, whose NEO Confirmation Page contains newly discovered objects which require confirmation by further observations.

U.D.A.S. discovered its first NEO

Discovery images of the Amor asteroid 2001 FX₉ taken on March 21, 2001.

First Numbered U.D.A.S. discovered asteroid

(13437)* 1999 WF8 = 1977 RP17 = 1997 AX20 = 1998 MS20 MPC 37 607

The asteroid has been named in honour of our sponsors. The official citation has been published in the July 26 batch of the Minor Planet Circulars.

Discovery images of 1999 WF₈ taken on November 28, 1999.

244 Numbered asteroids discovered by U.D.A.S.

U.D.A.S. Team

at Uppsala/Kvistaberg