Asteroid lightcurve inversion with Lommel-Seeliger ellipsoids

作者：Muinonen Karri^*; Wilkman Olli; Cellino Alberto; Wang Xiaobin; Wang Yibo

来源：Planetary and Space Science, 2015, 118: 227-241.

DOI：10.1016/j.pss.2015.09.005

• Asteroids
• Near-Earth objects
• Lightcurve inversion
• Lommel-Seeliger ellipsoid
• Lommel-Seeliger reflection coefficient
• Particulate-medium reflection coefficient
• Marlcov chain Monte Carlo
• Gaia mission

We derive initial rotation, shape, and scattering properties for asteroids from sparse and dense photometry based on the so-called Lommel-Seeliger ellipsoid (LS ellipsoid). Due to the analytical disk integrated brightness, the LS ellipsoid allows for fast rotation-period, pole-orientation, and shape analyses, as well as efficient Markov-chain Monte Carlo solutions (MCMC). We apply the methods to simulated sparse Gaia photometry, as well as to ground-based photometry composed of dense light curves. For a specific Gaia simulation, we make use of a numerical reflection coefficient developed for particulate surfaces, and utilize the LS ellipsoid in the inversion of the simulated data. We conclude that, in a majority of cases, initial LS ellipsoid retrieval of the parameters is satisfactory. Finally, we formulate a single-scattering phase function that, for a spherical asteroid, results in the H G(1), G(2) photometric phase function.

• 出版日期2015-12-1
• 单位中国科学院云南天文台