000133112 001__ 133112 000133112 005__ 20240322124130.0 000133112 0247_ $$2doi$$a10.1016/j.asr.2024.01.029 000133112 0248_ $$2sideral$$a137782 000133112 037__ $$aART-2024-137782 000133112 041__ $$aeng 000133112 100__ $$aLacruz, Elvis 000133112 245__ $$aDetermining leaders in a cloud of space debris 000133112 260__ $$c2024 000133112 5060_ $$aAccess copy available to the general public$$fUnrestricted 000133112 5203_ $$aA methodology has been devised to compute the maximum of the minimum distances between different objects in a space debris cloud. By using the orbital information of the pieces that make up the cloud, a threshold distance is defined to determine which pieces are close enough to each other. The closest pieces are then considered associated objects, and those pieces of debris that have the most associated objects are identified as the leaders of the cloud. Once the leaders of a debris cloud are identified, the orbital dynamics of those leaders can provide preliminary information about the dynamics of their associated objects. The methodology was applied to a specific space debris cloud composed of 255 cataloged pieces, identifying four leaders which have 43 associated objects. Thus, the dynamics of only four pieces of space debris (0.015% of the cloud) are similar to the dynamics of 43 pieces of debris (17% of the cloud). This methodology could be extrapolated to other debris clouds, making the search for leaders a simple and rapid tool. 000133112 536__ $$9info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/DGA/E24-23R$$9info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MICINN/PID2020-117066GB-I00 000133112 540__ $$9info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess$$aby-nc-nd$$uhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/ 000133112 655_4 $$ainfo:eu-repo/semantics/article$$vinfo:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion 000133112 700__ $$0(orcid)0000-0002-7620-4523$$aCasanova, Daniel 000133112 773__ $$g73, 8 (2024), 4269-4283$$pAdv. space res.$$tAdvances in Space Research$$x0273-1177 000133112 8564_ $$s13345996$$uhttps://zaguan.unizar.es/record/133112/files/texto_completo.pdf$$yPostprint$$zinfo:eu-repo/date/embargoEnd/2026-04-15 000133112 8564_ $$s1961956$$uhttps://zaguan.unizar.es/record/133112/files/texto_completo.jpg?subformat=icon$$xicon$$yPostprint$$zinfo:eu-repo/date/embargoEnd/2026-04-15 000133112 909CO $$ooai:zaguan.unizar.es:133112$$particulos$$pdriver 000133112 951__ $$a2024-03-22-09:47:10 000133112 980__ $$aARTICLE