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

Abstract

We describe a new iteration method to estimate asteroid coordinates, based on a subpixel Gaussian model of the discrete object image. The method operates by continuous parameters (asteroid coordinates) in a discrete observational space (the set of pixel potentials) of the CCD frame. In this model, the kind of 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 method that is developed, which is flexible in adapting to any form of object image, has a high measurement accuracy along with a low calculating complexity, due to the maximum-likelihood procedure that is implemented to obtain the best fit instead of a least-squares method and Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm for minimization of the quadratic form. Since 2010, the method has been tested as the basis of our Collection Light Technology (COLITEC) software, which has been installed at several observatories across the world with the aim of the automatic discovery of asteroids and comets in sets of CCD frames. As a 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 near-Earth objects (NEOs), 21 Trojan asteroids of Jupiter and one Centaur object) have been discovered. We discuss these results, which allowed us to compare the accuracy parameters of the 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.