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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0The Planetary Science Journal

Efficient Detection-level Linking of Trans-Neptunian Objects via a Spherical-orbit Basis

  • Thomas R. Ruch1
  • Kevin J. Napier1,2
  • David W. Gerdes3
  • Hsing Wen 省文 Lin 林1,3
  1. 1University of Michigan
  2. 2Center for Astrophysics—Harvard & Smithsonian
  3. 3Case Western Reserve University
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Abstract

Discovering solar system objects in time-domain survey data requires linking: determining which detections observed at different times were produced by the same moving object. In wide-field surveys, this association problem is challenging because detection catalogs are dominated by artifacts, variable sources, and other unrelated transients, creating a large combinatorial search over possible links. The problem is compounded when the cadence is sparse or the objects are faint, such that detections of a given object are not guaranteed to form same-night tracklets. We present an algorithm for linking single-opposition detections of solar system objects, such as trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), that operates directly on individual detections rather than first forming tracklets. The method searches over trial orbits in a spherical-orbit parameterization, propagates detections to a common epoch, and identifies candidate objects as coherent clusters in the transformed coordinates. We demonstrate the pipeline on 12 months of Dark Energy Survey (DES) Supernova X3 field observations, a region with Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST)–like cadence. The method achieves a linking efficiency of better than 98% on implanted synthetic objects and successfully recovers all nine known linkable TNOs in the field, while discovering 17 new TNOs.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{ruch2026efficient,
  title = {{Efficient Detection-level Linking of Trans-Neptunian Objects via a Spherical-orbit Basis}},
  author = {Thomas R. Ruch and Kevin J. Napier and David W. Gerdes and Hsing Wen 省文 Lin 林},
  journal = {The Planetary Science Journal},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.3847/psj/aea3f4},
  url = {https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/aea3f4},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Efficient Detection-level Linking of Trans-Neptunian Objects via a Spherical-orbit Basis
AU  - Thomas R. Ruch
AU  - Kevin J. Napier
AU  - David W. Gerdes
AU  - Hsing Wen 省文 Lin 林
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/01
JO  - The Planetary Science Journal
DO  - 10.3847/psj/aea3f4
UR  - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/aea3f4
AB  - Discovering solar system objects in time-domain survey data requires linking: determining which detections observed at different times were produced by the same moving object. In wide-field surveys, this association problem is challenging because detection catalogs are dominated by artifacts, variable sources, and other unrelated transients, creating a large combinatorial search over possible links. The problem is compounded when the cadence is sparse or the objects are faint, such that detections of a given object are not guaranteed to form same-night tracklets. We present an algorithm for linking single-opposition detections of solar system objects, such as trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), that operates directly on individual detections rather than first forming tracklets. The method searches over trial orbits in a spherical-orbit parameterization, propagates detections to a common epoch, and identifies candidate objects as coherent clusters in the transformed coordinates. We demonstrate the pipeline on 12 months of Dark Energy Survey (DES) Supernova X3 field observations, a region with Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST)–like cadence. The method achieves a linking efficiency of better than 98% on implanted synthetic objects and successfully recovers all nine known linkable TNOs in the field, while discovering 17 new TNOs.
SN  - 2632-3338
ER  -