heliostack: A Novel Approach to Minor Planet Discovery

TL;DR

Heliostack is a new nonlinear shift-and-stack algorithm that enhances the detection of faint solar system objects in archival and future survey data by combining images over extended periods.

Contribution

We introduce heliostack, a novel algorithm enabling longer time-span image stacking for discovering faint solar system objects, demonstrated by new Kuiper Belt Object detections in HST data.

Findings

Successfully recovered known objects in HST data.

Discovered two new faint Kuiper Belt Objects.

First detections in stacks over more than one day.

Abstract

The study of faint solar system objects is a promising avenue for understanding the origin and evolution of planetary systems. However, such objects are difficult to detect in conventional surveys. Here we introduce heliostack, an algorithm for nonlinear shift-and-stack searches for solar system objects, which enables us to combine images taken over longer time spans than was previously possible. Applying this algorithm to a number of existing archival and forthcoming surveys will allow us to maximize their potential for discovering faint solar system objects. In this work, we apply heliostack to archival Hubble Space Telescope (HST) data, completing an exhaustive search for Cold Classical Kuiper Belt Objects in a set of HST images taken over a 15-day time span in 2003. We successfully recover both of the known sub-threshold objects in the data, and add two new discoveries. These two new objects are the first to ever be discovered in stacks of images taken over a time span longer than about one day.