The Weird and the Wonderful in Our Solar System: Searching for Serendipity in the Legacy Survey of Space and Time

Abstract

We present a novel method for anomaly detection in solar system object data in preparation for the Legacy Survey of Space and Time. We train a deep autoencoder for anomaly detection and use the learned latent space to search for other interesting objects. We demonstrate the efficacy of the autoencoder approach by finding interesting examples, such as interstellar objects, and show that by using the autoencoder, further examples of interesting classes can be found. We also investigate the limits of classic unsupervised approaches to anomaly detection through the generation of synthetic anomalies and evaluate the feasibility of using a supervised learning approach. Future work should consider expanding the feature space to increase the variety of anomalies that can be uncovered during the survey using an autoencoder.

Keywords

• Neural networks
• Small Solar System bodies
• Outlier detection