The Minor Planet Center (MPC) uses the term "identification" to refer to the situations when:

• Two or more tracklets are discovered to be the same underlying object and hence a new designation is created. We refer to this kind of link as ITF-to-ITF.
• A tracklet is discovered to be the same underlying object as an existing designated object or of a NEOCP object. We refer to this kind of link as ITF-to-DES or ITF-to-NEOCP.
• Two or more designated orbits are discovered to be the same underlying object and hence an identification is made between their designations. We refer to this kind of link as DES-to-DES.
• Two or more objects on the NEOCP are linked together. We refer to this kind of link as NEOCP-to-NEOCP.

The Identifications Pipeline

Identifications can be submitted by users for any of these linkage types.

• The pipeline attempts to automatically process any object type submitted.
• NEO and MBA linkages are processed automatically.
• ITF tracklets can be added to an NEOCP candidate.
• Two NEOCP candidates can be linked to one another while on the NEOCP.
• NEOCP candidates can be linked to a known object (and will subsequently be removed from the NEOCP).
• NEOCP candidates can be labeled as artificial, as long as sat_id identifies them as well. The same applies to ITF tracklets.
• The automated processing will fail for parabolic and hyperbolic orbits.
• The automated processing will likely fail for distant objects (such as TNOs) and Natural Satellites.
• Comets are not processed automatically.
• If an NEOCP candidate is matched with a known one-opposition NEO and new astrometry extends the arc to multiple-opposition, a recovery MPEC is issued if new astrometry provides two distinct nights: two nights are defined when the arc length of the NEOCP object covers more than 0.75 days (or covers more than 0.5 day when the astrometry if from at least three distinct obscodes).
• Single tracklets or shorter arcs extending NEO or TNO from one-opposition to multi-oppositions are moved to the recovery page.
• Identifications of numbered objects with unnumbered objects are processed immediately by the pipeline, but only published during MPCs.
• If a linkage is approved for a Comet, Natural Satellite, or a TNO which requires an MPEC, the object is sent to a manual queue for publication.
• We strongly discourage the submission of links that only provide single tracklet on a new apparition - that could be a false positive. At least two tracklets on the same apparition usually proves the link is correct.