<tt>Sorcha</tt>: Optimized Solar System Ephemeris Generation
Open accessAbstract
Sorcha is a solar system survey simulator built for the Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) and future large-scale wide-field surveys. Over the 10 yr survey, the LSST is expected to collect roughly a billion observations of minor planets. The task of a solar system survey simulator is to take a set of input objects (described by orbits and physical properties) and determine what a real or hypothetical survey would have discovered. Existing survey simulators have a computational bottleneck in determining which input objects lie in each survey field, making them infeasible for LSST data scales. Sorcha can swiftly, efficiently, and accurately calculate the on-sky positions for sets of millions of input orbits and surveys with millions of visits, identifying which exposures these objects cross, in order for later stages of the software to make detailed estimates of the apparent magnitude and detectability of those input small bodies. In this paper, we provide the full details of the algorithm and software behind Sorcha’s ephemeris generator. Like many of Sorcha’s components, its ephemeris generator can be easily used for other surveys.
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The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope as a Near-Earth Object discovery machine
Jones, R. L., Slater, C. T., Moeyens, J., Allen, L., Axelrod, T., Cook, K., Ivezić, Ž., Jurić, M., Myers, J., & Petry, C. E. (2018) · Icarus · doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2017.11.033 · Cited by 81 · see citing works
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- Authors
- Holman, M. J., Bernardinelli, P. H., Schwamb, M. E., Jurić, M., Oldag, D., West, M., Napier, K. J., Merritt, S. R., Fedorets, G., Cornwall, S., Kurlander, J. A., Eggl, S., Kubica, J., Kiker, K., Murtagh, J., Naidu, S. P., & Chandler, C. O.
- Affiliations
- Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian (US)
- University of Washington (US)
- Queen's University Belfast (GB)
- University of Michigan (US)
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US)
- Large Synoptic Survey Telescope Corporation (US)
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory (US)
- Corresponding author
- Holman, Matthew J.
- Bernardinelli, Pedro H.
- Schwamb, Megan E.
- Jurić, Mario
- Oldag, Drew
- West, Maxine
- Napier, Kevin J.
- Merritt, Stephanie R.
- Fedorets, Grigori
- Cornwall, Samuel
- Kurlander, Jacob A.
- Eggl, Siegfried
- Kubica, Jeremy
- Kiker, Kathleen
- Murtagh, Joseph
- Naidu, Shantanu P.
- Chandler, Colin Orion
- ORCID
- Venue
- The Astronomical Journal
- Publisher
- American Astronomical Society
- Published
- 2025-07-21
- Volume
- 170
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 97
- ISSN
- 0004-6256 (ISSN-L)
- 1538-3881
- OpenAlex
- W4412520191
- Cited by
- 9
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 4
- FWCI
- 3.53
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- The Astronomical Journal (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- Research Portal (Queen's University Belfast) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- UTUPub (University of Turku) (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Työväentutkimus Vuosikirja (submittedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (cc-by)
- Funders
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (80NSSC22K023)
- National Science Foundation (AST220619)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Astro and Planetary Science
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Instrumentation › Astronomy and Astrophysical Research
- Keywords
- minor planet, Vera C. Rubin Observatory, Legacy Survey of Space and Time, wide-field survey
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