We studied a sample of 93 asteroid pairs, i.e., pairs of genetically related asteroids that are on highly similar heliocentric orbits. We estimated times elapsed since separation of pair members (i.e., pair age) that are between 7 × 10 3 yr and a few 10 6 yr. With photometric observations, we derived the rotation periods P 1 for all the primaries (i.e., the larger members of asteroid pairs) and a sample of secondaries (the smaller pair members). We derived the absolute magnitude differences of the studied asteroid pairs that provide their mass ratios q. For a part of the studied pairs, we refined their WISE geometric albedos and collected or estimated their taxonomic classifications. For 17 asteroid pairs, we also determined their pole positions. In two pairs where we obtained the spin poles for both pair components, we saw the same sense of rotation for both components and constrained the angles between their original spin vectors at the time of their separation. We found that the primaries of 13 asteroid pairs in our sample are actually binary or triple systems, i.e., they have one or two bound, orbiting secondaries (satellites). As a by-product, we found also 3 new young asteroid clusters (each of them consisting of three known asteroids on highly similar heliocentric orbits). We compared the obtained asteroid pair data with theoretical predictions and discussed their implications. We found that 86 of the 93 studied asteroid pairs follow the trend of primary rotation period vs mass ratio that was found by Pravec et al. (2010). Of the 7 outliers, 3 appear insignificant (may be due to our uncertain or incomplete knowledge of the three pairs), but 4 are high mass ratio pairs that were unpredicted by the theory of asteroid pair formation by rotational fission. We discuss a (remotely) possible way that they could be created by rotational fission of flattened parent bodies followed by re-shaping of the formed components. The 13 asteroid pairs with binary primaries are particularly interesting systems that place important constraints on formation and evolution of asteroid pairs. We present two hypotheses for their formation: The asteroid pairs having both bound and unbound secondaries could be "failed asteroid clusters", or they could be formed by a cascade primary spin fission process. Further studies are needed to reveal which of these two hypotheses for formation of the paired binary systems is real.

New methods have recently been developed to search for strong gravitational lenses, in particular lensed quasars, in wide-field imaging surveys. Here, we compare the performance of three different, morphology-and photometry-based methods to find lens candidates within the Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS) DR3 footprint (440 deg 2 ). The three methods are: i) a multiplet detection in KiDS-DR3 and/or Gaia-DR1, ii) direct modeling of KiDS cutouts and iii) positional offsets between different surveys (KiDS-vs-Gaia, Gaia-vs-2MASS), with purpose-built astrometric recalibrations. The first benchmark for the methods has been set by the recovery of known lenses. We are able to recover seven out of ten known lenses and pairs of quasars observed in the KiDS DR3 footprint, or eight out of ten with improved selection criteria and looser colour pre-selection. This success rate reflects the combination of all methods together, which, taken individually, performed significantly worse (four lenses each). One novelty of our analysis is that the comparison of the performances of the different methods has revealed the strengths and weaknesses of the approaches and, most of all, the complementarity. We finally provide a list of high-grade candidates found by one or more methods, awaiting spectroscopic follow-up for confirmation. Of these, KiDS 1042+0023 is, to our knowledge, the first confirmed lensed quasar from KiDS, exhibiting two quasar spectra at the same source redshift at either sides of a red galaxy, with uniform flux-ratio f ≈ 1.25 over the wavelength range 0.45µm < λ < 0.75µm.

Aims. We study brightness variations in the double lensed quasar UM673 (Q0142-100) with the aim of measuring the time delay between its two images. Methods. We combined our previously published observational data of UM673 obtained during the 2003-2005 seasons at the Maidanak Observatory with archival and recently observed Maidanak and CTIO UM673 data. We analyzed the V, R and I-band light curves of the A and B images of UM673, which cover ten observational seasons from August 2001 to November 2010. We also analyzed the time evolution of the difference in magnitudes (flux ratio) between images A and B of UM673 over more than ten years. Results. We find that the quasar exhibits both short-term (with an amplitude of ∼0.1 mag in the R band) and long-term (with an amplitude of ∼0.3 mag) variability on timescales of about several months and several years, respectively. These brightness variations are used to constrain the time delay between the images of UM673. From a cross-correlation analysis of the A and B quasar light curves and an error analysis we measure a mean time delay of 89 days with an rms error of 11 days. Given the input time delay of 88 days, the most probable value of the delay that can be recovered from light curves with the same statistical properties as the observed R-band light curves of UM673, is 95 +5 −16 +14−29 days (68% and 95% confidence intervals). Analysis of the V − I color variations and the V, R and I-band magnitude differences of the quasar images does not show clear evidence for microlensing variations between 1998 and 2010.

Context. The KiDS Strongly lensed QUAsar Detection project (KiDS-SQuaD) is aimed at finding as many previously undiscovered gravitational lensed quasars as possible in the Kilo Degree Survey. This is the second paper of this series where we present a new, automatic object-classification method based on the machine learning technique. Aims. The main goal of this paper is to build a catalogue of bright extragalactic objects (galaxies and quasars) from the KiDS Data Release 4, with minimum stellar contamination and preserving the completeness as much as possible. We show here that this catalogue represents the perfect starting point to search for reliable gravitationally lensed quasar candidates. Methods. After testing some of the most used machine learning algorithms, decision-tree-based classifiers, we decided to use CatBoost, which was specifically trained with the aim of creating a sample of extragalactic sources that is as clean of stars as possible. We discuss the input data, define the training sample for the classifier, give quantitative estimates of its performances, and finally describe the validation results with Gaia DR2, AllWISE, and GAMA catalogues. Results. We built and made available to the scientific community the KiDS Bright EXtraGalactic Objects catalogue (KiDS-BEXGO), specifically created to find gravitational lenses but applicable to a wide number of scientific purposes. The KiDS-BEXGO catalogue is made of ≈6 million sources classified as quasars (≈200 000) and galaxies (≈5.7 M) up to r <  22m. To demonstrate the potential of the catalogue in the search for strongly lensed quasars, we selected ≈950 “Multiplets”: close pairs of quasars or galaxies surrounded by at least one quasar. We present cutouts and coordinates of the 12 most reliable gravitationally lensed quasar candidates. We showed that employing a machine learning method decreases the stellar contaminants within the gravitationally lensed candidates, comparing the current results to the previous ones, presented in the first paper from this series. Conclusions. Our work presents the first comprehensive identification of bright extragalactic objects in KiDS DR4 data, which is, for us, the first necessary step towards finding strong gravitational lenses in wide-sky photometric surveys, but has also many other more general astrophysical applications.