Palomar Distant Solar System Survey


The Palomar Distant Solar System Survey was a wide-field survey aimed at finding distant trans-Neptunian objects that used the robotic 1.2 m Samuel Oschin Telescope at Palomar Observatory and the QUEST large-area CCD camera.
The survey was specifically designed to identify putative members of a Sedna-like population with perihelia greater than 45 AU. The limiting magnitude of this study was 21.3 in the R-band, it was sensitive out to distances of 1000 AU, and 12,000 square degrees of sky were searched. This observing program was responsible for the discovery of 25 minor planets including trans-Neptunian objects and centaurs. and Gǃkúnǁʼhòmdímà were among the objects discovered by this survey. It redetected Sedna but no other objects in Sedna-like orbits were identified.