Finding Asteroids Down the Back of the Couch: A Novel Approach to the Minor Planet Linking Problem

Matthew J. Holman, Matthew J. Payne, Paul Blankley, Ryan Janssen, Scott Kuindersma
(Submitted on 7 May 2018)

We present a novel approach to the minor planet linking problem. Our heliocentric transformation-and-propagation algorithm clusters tracklets at common epochs, allowing for the efficient identification of tracklets that represent the same minor planet. This algorithm scales as $O(N log N)$, with the number of tracklets $N$, a significant advance over standard methods, which scale as $O(N^3)$. This overcomes one of the primary computational bottlenecks faced by current and future asteroid surveys. We apply our algorithm to the Minor Planet Center’s Isolated Tracklet File, establishing orbits for $\sim41,000$ new minor planets.

Subjects:    Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
Cite as:    arXiv:1805.02638 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:1805.02638v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)
Submission history
From: Matthew Payne [view email]
[v1] Mon, 7 May 2018 17:47:13 GMT (2508kb,D)
https://arxiv.org/abs/1805.02638