Euclid: Detecting Solar System objects in Euclid images and classifying them using Kohonen self-organising maps
Abstract
The ESA Euclid mission will survey more than 14,000 deg of the sky in visible and near-infrared wavelengths, mapping the extra-galactic sky to constrain our cosmological model of the Universe. Although the survey focusses on regions further than 15 deg from the ecliptic, it should allow for the detection of more than about Solar System objects (SSOs). After simulating the expected signal from SSOs in Euclid images acquired with the visible camera (VIS), we describe an automated pipeline developed to detect moving objects with an apparent velocity in the range of 0.1-10 arcsec/h, typically corresponding to sources in the outer Solar System (from Centaurs to Kuiper-belt objects). In particular, the proposed detection scheme is based on Sourcextractor software and on applying a new algorithm capable of associating moving objects amongst different catalogues. After applying a suite of filters to improve the detection quality, we study the expected purity and completeness of the SSO detections. We also show how a Kohonen self-organising neural network can be successfully trained (in an unsupervised fashion) to classify stars, galaxies, and SSOs. By implementing an early-stopping method in the training scheme, we show that the network can be used in a predictive way, allowing one to assign the probability of each detected object being a member of each considered class.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2501.05023,
title = {Euclid: Detecting Solar System objects in Euclid images and classifying them using Kohonen self-organising maps},
author = {A. A. Nucita and L. Conversi and A. Verdier and A. Franco and S. Sacquegna and M. Pöntinen and B. Altieri and B. Carry and F. De Paolis and F. Strafella and V. Orofino and M. Maiorano and V. Kansal and R. D. Vavrek and M. Miluzio and M. Granvik and V. Testa and N. Aghanim and S. Andreon and N. Auricchio and M. Baldi and S. Bardelli and E. Branchini and M. Brescia and J. Brinchmann and S. Camera and V. Capobianco and C. Carbone and J. Carretero and S. Casas and M. Castellano and G. Castignani and S. Cavuoti and A. Cimatti and G. Congedo and C. J. Conselice and Y. Copin and F. Courbin and H. M. Courtois and A. Da Silva and H. Degaudenzi and A. M. Di Giorgio and J. Dinis and F. Dubath and X. Dupac and S. Dusini and M. Farina and S. Farrens and S. Ferriol and M. Frailis and E. Franceschi and M. Fumana and S. Galeotta and B. Gillis and C. Giocoli and P. Gómez-Alvarez and A. Grazian and F. Grupp and S. V. H. Haugan and J. Hoar and W. Holmes and F. Hormuth and A. Hornstrup and P. Hudelot and K. Jahnke and M. Jhabvala and E. Keihänen and S. Kermiche and A. Kiessling and M. Kilbinger and R. Kohley and B. Kubik and M. Kümmel and H. Kurki-Suonio and R. Laureijs and S. Ligori and P. B. Lilje and V. Lindholm and I. Lloro and E. Maiorano and O. Mansutti and O. Marggraf and K. Markovic and N. Martinet and F. Marulli and R. Massey and D. C. Masters and E. Medinaceli and S. Mei and Y. Mellier and M. Meneghetti and G. Meylan and M. Moresco and L. Moscardini and R. Nakajima and S. -M. Niemi and C. Padilla and S. Paltani and F. Pasian and K. Pedersen and V. Pettorino and S. Pires and G. Polenta and M. Poncet and L. A. Popa and L. Pozzetti and F. Raison and R. Rebolo and A. Renzi and J. Rhodes and G. Riccio and E. Romelli and M. Roncarelli and E. Rossetti and R. Saglia and D. Sapone and B. Sartoris and M. Schirmer and P. Schneider and A. Secroun and G. Seidel and S. Serrano and C. Sirignano and G. Sirri and J. Skottfelt and L. Stanco and J. Steinwagner and P. Tallada-Crespí and A. N. Taylor and I. Tereno and R. Toledo-Moreo and F. Torradeflot and I. Tutusaus and L. Valenziano and T. Vassallo and G. Verdoes Kleijn and A. Veropalumbo and Y. Wang and J. Weller and A. Zacchei and E. Zucca and M. Bolzonella and C. Burigana and V. Scottez},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2501.05023},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
Accepted for publication on Astronomy and Astrophysics. 15 Pages, 11 Figures