NEW:  SAMS can find stars on images!

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Asteroids are a constant hazard to life on earth. The impact of such an object most likely caused the mass extinction of dinosaurs approximately 65 million years ago. Continuous observations are inevitable in order to gather the orbital parameters necessary to perform predictions of an asteroid’s future path and thus determine its potential threat to earth. Determining precise positional data for recently discovered minor planets is crucial. Systematic surveys fulfilling such tasks are only little-noticed by the public.

In order to achieve higher precision in asteroid positioning we present SAMS as an innovative and simplified approach for better positional measurement of celestial bodies. Using computer-aided simulations and real observational data, a significant improvement in precision has been shown compared to the methods being used today.

SAMS enables us to perform positional fits on simulated as well as on real image data. Our self-developed software relies in particular on “intelligent” methods. Those are based on a selective choice of reference objects with well-known positions. Simulations also allow us to evaluate the new methods with the tools of statistics by assessing a huge quantity of well-defined data sets. In addition, SAMS has an intuitive GUI which provides a user-friendly and straight forward operation.

For a better understanding of the use of SAMS on real data, we observed a number of minor planets. The images taken were analysed with different methods and their results were compared to each other. Applying the new methods shows a significant improvement in the quality of the retrieved positions, as indicated by our simulations.