We describe ZStreak, a semi-real-time pipeline specialized in detecting small, fast-moving near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) that is currently operating on the data from the newly-commissioned Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) survey. Based on a prototype originally developed by Waszczak et al. (2017) for the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF), the predecessor of ZTF, ZStreak features an improved machine-learning model that can cope with the 10× data rate increment between PTF and ZTF. Since its first discovery on 2018 February 5 (2018 CL), ZTF/ZStreak has discovered 45 confirmed new NEAs over a total of 232 observable nights until 2018 December 31. Most of the discoveries are small NEAs, with diameters less than ∼100 m. By analyzing the discovery circumstances, we find that objects having the first to last detection time interval under 2 hr are at risk of being lost. We will further improve real-time follow-up capabilities, and work on suppressing false positives using deep learning.
@article{arxiv.1904.09645,
title = {Towards Efficient Detection of Small Near-Earth Asteroids Using the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF)},
author = {Quanzhi Ye and Frank J. Masci and Hsing Wen Lin and Bryce Bolin and Chan-Kao Chang and Dmitry A. Duev and George Helou and Wing-Huen Ip and David L. Kaplan and Emily Kramer and Ashish Mahabal and Chow-Choong Ngeow and Avery J. Nielsen and Thomas A. Prince and Hanjie Tan and Ting-Shuo Yeh and Eric C. Bellm and Richard Dekany and Matteo Giomi and Matthew J. Graham and Shrinivas R. Kulkarni and Thomas Kupfer and Russ R. Laher and Ben Rusholme and David L. Shupe and Charlotte Ward},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1904.09645},
year = {2019}
}