Basis functions and uniqueness in orbit-averaged population analysis of asteroids

Abstract

Time-resolved photometry of asteroids can be used for shape and spin reconstruction. If the number of measurements per asteroid is not sufficient to create a model, the whole data set can be used to reconstruct the distribution of shape elongations and pole latitudes in the population. This is done by reconstructing amplitudes of lightcurves that are estimated from dispersion of points observed at (assumed) constant aspect angle. Here, we formulate orbit-averaged approach where the observable is the orbit-averaged dispersion of brightness.

References in corpus (4)

• The shape distribution of asteroid families -- evidence for evolution driven by small impacts
• Asteroid Models from Multiple Data Sources
• Brightness variation distributions among main belt asteroids from sparse light curve sampling with Pan-STARRS 1
• Distribution of shape elongations of main belt asteroids derived from Pan-STARRS1 photometry

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Asteroid models from generalised projections: Essential facts for asteroid modellers and geometric inverse problem solvers