Optical Survey for Cislunar Moving Objects Using Image Stacking

Rongyu Sun

doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ae4c85

Return

Optical Survey for Cislunar Moving Objects Using Image Stacking

2026-04-01

PRE

DOI：10.3847/1538-3881/ae4c85

Original

Original request for help

Save

Abstract

En 中文

The term cislunar space refers to the region influenced by Earth and/or the Moon. With the expansion of space activities in cislunar space, the number of missions into the cislunar realm is about to increase significantly. The resultant space debris problem generates the need for moving object surveys in the cislunar region. Observation utilizing optical telescopes is one of the main methods to detect space objects in the near-Earth realm; however, for regions far away from Earth in the vast cislunar realm, long distances make the objects fainter, stressing the sensing capabilities of ground-based telescopes. Image stacking is a popular way to enhance the detection abilities, and it has been widely used in astronomical applications. A shift-and-add pipeline is developed to detect cislunar space objects. First, background stars are extracted, their pixels are subtracted, and then frames of consecutive exposures are shifted and stacked with a large number of displacements. Finally, investigations are performed to find newly detected candidates. Trial observations were performed with three dedicated telescopes and two cislunar spacecraft. It is demonstrated that the detection ability can be enhanced significantly with image stacking. The signal-to-noise ratio is increased by more than 2.7 times when 9 frames are stacked, and a moving object down to 19 mag can be effectively detected using a 40 cm telescope. Our research details a reliable and cost-effective way to perform cislunar space object surveys, making great contributions to the search for near-Earth objects and to solar system astronomy.

Keywords:

SPACE DEBRIS

WIDE-FIELD

ALGORITHMS

EXTRACTION