SSOXmatch: a Java pipeline to compute cross-matches of Solar System bodies in astronomical observations

Abstract

In this paper I will describe a new software package developed using the Java programming language, aimed to compute the positions of any Solar System body (among asteroids, comets, planets, and satellites) to help to perform cross-matches of them in observations taken from earth- and space-based observatories. The space telescopes supported are Hubble, James Webb, Euclid, XMM-Newton, Spitzer, Herschel, Gaia, Kepler, Chandra, and TESS, although the flexibility of the software allows to support any other mission without the need to change a single line of code. The orbital elements can be selected among the asteroid database from the Lowell observatory (completed with the cometpro database of comets maintained by the LTE), and the JPL database of minor bodies. The software does not depend on external tools, and performs its own numerical integration of minor bodies. The dynamical model implemented for the Solar System includes the gravity effects of all major bodies, including the Earth, Moon, and Pluto as individual bodies, 16 perturbing asteroids as in other tools, the General Relativity effects, the oblateness of the Sun, Earth, and Moon, and the non-gravitational forces for both comets and asteroids. A complete set of web services allow to compute the cross-matches (that are later to be confirmed, for instance by visual inspection of the images) and also ephemerides of specific bodies. The code is highly optimized and follows the highest standards in terms of software quality and documentation.