Algorithm spots 104 asteroids in huge piles of data

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Algorithm spots 104 asteroids in huge piles of data

Researchers at The Asteroid Institute have developed a way to locate previously unknown asteroids in astronomical data, and all it took was a massive amount of cloud computing power to do it.

Traditionally, asteroid spotters would have to build so-called tracklets of multiple night sky images taken in short succession that show a suspected minor planetoid's movement. If what's observed matches orbital calculations, congratulations: it's an asteroid.

Asteroid Institute scientists are finding a way around that time sink with a novel algorithm called Tracklet-less Heliocentric Orbit Recovery, or THOR, that can comb through mountains of data, make orbital predictions, transform sky images, and match it to other data points to establish asteroid identity.

More: https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/01/algorithm_104_asteroids/