A new method based on the subpixel Gaussian model for accurate estimation of asteroid coordinates

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel subpixel Gaussian model-based iteration method for precise asteroid coordinate estimation, demonstrating high accuracy and efficiency in real-world astronomical observations and discoveries.

Contribution

The paper presents a new flexible iteration method using a subpixel Gaussian model and maximum likelihood estimation for asteroid coordinate determination, improving accuracy and computational efficiency.

Findings

Successfully tested on real CCD data since 2010

Discovered multiple comets and over 1500 small Solar System bodies

Confirmed high measurement accuracy and efficiency of the method

Abstract

We describe a new iteration method to estimate asteroid coordinates, which is based on the subpixel Gaussian model of a discrete object image. The method operates by continuous parameters (asteroid coordinates) in a discrete observational space (the set of pixels potential) of the CCD frame. In this model, a kind of the coordinate distribution of the photons hitting a pixel of the CCD frame is known a priori, while the associated parameters are determined from a real digital object image. The developed method, being more flexible in adapting to any form of the object image, has a high measurement accuracy along with a low calculating complexity due to a maximum likelihood procedure, which is implemented to obtain the best fit instead of a least-squares method and Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm for the minimisation of the quadratic form. Since 2010, the method was tested as the basis of our CoLiTec (Collection Light Technology) software, which has been installed at several observatories of the world with the aim of automatic discoveries of asteroids and comets on a set of CCD frames. As the result, four comets (C/2010 X1 (Elenin), P/2011 NO1(Elenin), C/2012 S1 (ISON), and P/2013 V3 (Nevski)) as well as more than 1500 small Solar System bodies (including five NEOs, 21 Trojan asteroids of Jupiter, and one Centaur object) were discovered. We discuss these results that allowed us to compare the accuracy parameters of a new method and confirm its efficiency. In 2014, the CoLiTec software was recommended to all members of the Gaia-FUN-SSO network for analysing observations as a tool to detect faint moving objects in frames.